


SVT Office Antics

by UaenaMe



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Comedy, Crack, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-04-07 06:21:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 29,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19079275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UaenaMe/pseuds/UaenaMe
Summary: Seungkwan swears upon the fashion gods that multi-colour, tie-dye hoodies paired with denim baggy pants and purple-tinted sunglasses would never make for an acceptable outfit. Make it formal attire and you're off to fashion hell. But, the handsome and newly hired 23-year old at their office thinks otherwise.





	1. Foreword

“…” Seungkwan just stared,“Um…”

 

“Yes?”

 

“You’re...Chwe Hansol?” Seungkwan asked in disbelief, his eyes shifting between the guy in front of him and the orderly young man in the photo attached to the file on the table. _What the hell?_

...

...

“Umm, I guess... _I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am to be given this opportunity?_ ” Hansol answers quite unsurely, almost as if blurting out any half-decent textbook responses might be good enough to get him the job.

 

“I even wore my best clothes!"

 

...

 

_Oh hell no._


	2. The Rules of Good Fashion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seungkwan meets Hansol.

 

* * *

If you asked Seungkwan what he was most passionate about, he would say: fashion. He even majored in fashion for a short period in university before switching over to business for reasons of having better financial security for himself and his family. Anyways, he always considered himself as being highly knowledgeable about what was in and what was out in the world of vogue. Even dedicating himself to what he defined as the 3 Rules of Good Fashion:

  1. Never wearing clothes that clashed in colour or in pattern.
  2. He only wore clothes that flattered his skin-tone and body shape.
  3. And most important rule, he always dressed appropriately for the occasion and  would never be caught wearing everyday wear for formal wear.



 

Which is why he couldn’t help but be flabbergasted by the sight of the man in front of him.

* * *

 

“…” Seungkwan just stared,“Um…”

 

“Yes?”

 

“ _You’re_...Chwe Hansol?” Seungkwan asked in disbelief, his eyes shifting between the guy in front of him and the orderly young man in the photo in the file on the desk. _What the hell?_

 

“Yeah, my full name is Hansol Vernon Chwe. Sometimes my friends just call me Vernon, but whatevers fine by me.” The young man shrugged nonchalantly, not seeming nervous at all about the job interview at hand.

 

“Right...So, it says here that you-” Seungkwan looked down at the portfolio in front of him still trying to mask his disbelief at the sight. _What was he wearing?_

 

The young man sitting in the chair facing him just stared back waiting. Or at least, Seungkwan assumes he was looking at him; but, honestly he couldn’t really tell what was going on behind those purple lenses.

 

Oh yeah, he was wearing purple sunglasses. Indoors. During a job interview. Not only that, but this 'Hansol' fellow was looking even more out of place with his multi-coloured, tye-dye hoodie, atrocious baggy denim jeans, and an odd-fitting black beanie. Well, at least the guy had some decency to wear some nice-looking black dress shoes.

 

“It says here that you graduated from Seoul University?” Seungkwan continued.

 

Hansol nodded in response making Seungkwan squint his eyes. As if the absurd oufit wasn't hurting his senses enough, the sunlight coming from the windows behind him reflected off of Hansol’s lenses and into his poor unsuspecting eyes.

 

 

“Are you alright?” Hansol asked curiously.

 

 

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” Seungkwan rubbed his eyes before clearing his voice. “So, tell me why you applied for this position?”

 

Hansol hummed to himself for a bit, his leg bouncing. Seungkwan couldn't help but notice the way the ends of Hansol's long-ass jeans repeatedly dragged across the dust and germ-infested floor. He grimaced.

 

“Well, I guess ‘cause a roommate of mine suggested this place to me during a party once and my friend works here so I thought why not, you know?” Hansol shrugged once more. “Besides, I heard the cafeteria here serves really good food, so that’s a plus.”

 

Seungkwan’s mouth almost drops. But, he chooses to slowly blink instead. He surely can’t be serious. _That’s_ his answer?

 

“And why do you think you would make the best candidate for the job?”

 

Hansol pauses for a second, scratching at his beanie while making up an answer. “Because I am a really eager and avid learner?”

 

Seungkwan groans. It wasn’t like he heard that about a million times all morning.

 

"Umm," noticing Seungkwan's expression, Hansol scratches his head again before adding one last comment. "I guess... _I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am to be given this opportunity?_ ” Hansol answers quite unsurely, almost as if blurting out any half-decent textbook responses might be good enough to get him the job.

 

“I even wore my best clothes!” he adds. Seungkwan blinks hard.

 

Oh _hell no._

 

**NAME: HANSOL VERNON CHWE**

**AGE: 23**

**~~~ Note:SUGGESTION!!DON'T HIRE!~~~**

 

 

* * *

 

**15th FLOOR - CEO’S OFFICE**

 

“You have got to be kidding?!” Seungkwan screeched.

 

Outside of the CEO's office, the sound of a ceramic mug falling to the floor echoed in the hallway and was quickly followed by some unhappy grunting from his boss's secretary. Jihoon would probably scold him for being overly dramatic, but he could deal with that later.

 

“What? The kids got enough enthusiasm, don’t ya think? And some pretty good looks to boot! Could really help bring attention to the company!” his boss chirps from his desk, fiddling with the useless knick-knacks on his desk.

 

“Not in those clothes,” Seungkwan moans, shuddering from the thought of Hansol’s outfit. “Please, Mr. Kwon-”

 

“I told ya to call me Soonyoung!” he jumps up to correct him, pointing at him with a miniature toy cadillac in his hand.

 

Seungkwan brushes his boss’s stubby finger from his face and leans forward in his seat, “Sir, please reconsider your decision. If the guy can’t even take an interview seriously how do you expect him to do so with this job?”

 

“Yeah-yeah, but you only met him once. Maybe he was antsy.” Seungkwan scoffs.

 

“Listen Kwannie,” Soonyoung drops the toy on his table and places a hand on his shoulder. Seungkwan rolls his eyes. “I don’t know if you missed it, but the kid graduated at the top of his year with a 4.0 GPA from Seoul university with a degree in marketing and design, who else could be better suited for the job? As much as you hate his funky clothes, you can't deny he would make a great fit to the team!”

 

I mean he still _would_ deny, but... Seungkwan still raised a brow, unaware of those previous facts. Okay, so Seungkwan didn’t really look that deep into Hansol’s profile. He sighs defeatedly.

 

“That’s what I thought!” Soonyoung gleams and pats Seungkwan’s head a few times. “So, do we got ourselves a new rookie or what?”

 

Seungkwan groans loudly then nods to his boss. Almost mockingly, Soonyoung pumps his fist in the air and gets out his big-ass custom stamp on top his desk.

 

**NAME: HANSOL VERNON CHWE**

**AGE: 23**

**\--~~~NOTE:SUGGESTION!!DON’T HIRE!---**

 

                                                                               

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n a work-in-progress. never written a series like this before, but hope you guys like it anyways!


	3. Introductions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seungkwan feels like a scolding mother of two & Hansol meets _almost _everyone in the office.__

Later that afternoon, Soonyoung had ordered him to call Hansol into the office for orientation that same day. Seungkwan complained about it, of course, because who in god’s name would hire and bring a person back to work in the span of just a few hours? Soonyoung, that’s who.

So, after being forced to listen to the chorus of Hot Line Bling for the nth time, Seungkwan had finally got a hold of Hansol and asked if he could come in to the office upon his boss’s request. 

Unsurprisingly, Hansol had no oppositions or questions and said he would be over in half an hour. He could only hope that Hansol would make a quick outfit change. Cause heaven knows he didn’t want to be seen with him wearing those clothes.

* * *

 

Now, did Hansol actually do that?

…

...

Of course he didn’t.

 

Seungkwan sighed, but stood waiting as Hansol walked over to where he was in the building’s bustling lobby. It was around 4pm on a Monday, but the flow of people coming in and out of the building never ceased. Weirdly enough, despite Hansol’s outlandish appearance there was no reaction from the typical crowd of office workers.

Good. At least the lack of response meant Seungkwan could feel a little less embarrassed by association. That and the fact that Hansol had thankfully decided to lose the shades.

“Hi,” Hansol smiled. Okay, so now that he was able to see his entire face properly Seungkwan couldn’t lie... he was quite attractive. His whole facial proportions were close to perfect- his jawline was chiseled, his eyes were a serene shade of hazel brown, and his eyelashes were so long that Seungkwan was this close to calling him pretty...

Seungkwan coughs. Still didn’t change the fact that he dressed poorly.

“Hi,” Seungkwan gives him a curt nod, “Follow me. I’ll get you introduced to everyone.” Hansol nodded back and silently followed him as he led them over the elevators where he pressed the button for the 13th floor.

Despite the subtle elevator music in the background, things inside the elevator stayed relatively quiet. It was kind of awkward, Seungkwan won’t lie. From the corner of his eye he could see Hansol anxiously scratching at the side of his worn-out jeans. He was also biting his bottom lip and Seungkwan could tell that the guy was close to making himself bleed.

“Did you have anything to ask me?” Seungkwan asked, deciding to spare the poor guy’s lips from turning into a bloody mess.

Hansol blinks. “Uh, just realized I didn’t really know your name or anything,” Hansol confessed, seemingly embarrassed. Seungkwan blinks back.

 _Oh_ , right. Seungkwan never did introduce himself.

“Boo Seungkwan. 23 years old. Same age as you. Second head of marketing. Although, I’m pretty sure my title is bull-shit. Jeonghan just needs someone’s help to actually get shit done for him.” Seungkwan says all at once, grumbling the last part under his breath.

“Cool. So, we’re like friends then?” Hansol remarks, hands stuffed in his pockets nonchalantly. Seungkwan snarls to himself. No. That doesn’t automatically make them friends.

“I would prefer it if you kept our relationship business-only, thank you,” Seungkwan snaps sassily. Was he being overdramatic? He didn’t think so.

Hansol purses his lips and puts his hands up in defense. “Sure, whatever you say.”

Hansol minds his own business from then on and keeps quiet till the doors open. Once they do, Seungkwan walks them to the entrance and flashes his employee card to open the sliding glass doors.

“This entire floor is the Marketing Department. The large-open room we are in right now is for the employees in the general marketing section. From where we are till halfway into the office is all cubicles, but things are more open-plan than it seems,” Seungkwan gestures to the large white room they were standing in.

“The other separated glass rooms in the back are the different subdivisions; one of them being the Digital and Creative Advertising division where you’ll be working with Jisoo,” Seungkwan points Hansol to the rooms in the back and he just nods his head in confirmation.

As they both walk further into the office, Seungkwan finds himself more and more irritated. No one seemed to care to spare a judging glance at Hansol’s odd fashion, which was dumbfounding because how could you miss his atrociously vibrant tie-dye sweater? A few of them give Hansol a friendly nod to welcome him, but that was it. So, as another young office lady in an awful floral-printed, floor length dress fluttered her eyelashes in Hansol’s direction, Seungkwan couldn’t help but mentally curse her and her _stylistically_ -blind eyes.

 

_May the fashion gods create havoc on your waistline, Janice._

 

Anywho, continuing on with their tour, the two of them finally reached the centre of the room where the cubicles are swapped out for more visible groups of curved office desks.

“By the way, the smaller glass rooms to the left and right when you first enter are personal designated offices. Two of them are my and Jeonghan’s offices, who you will meet in a bi-” Seungkwan stops mid-sentence when he notices a mess of papers scattered on the ceramic floor in front of them.

Looking up from the mess, he spots a stretched-out figure asleep on top of what seems to be two conjoined desks formed into a makeshift bed. Hansol just stares confused alongside him, both entertained and perplexed at the sight. All the other employees continued to work around the man seamlessly at their own desks as if nothing was out of the norm. They really shouldn’t let this become a norm, Seungkwan sighed tiredly.

“That lazy-ass over there lying down on his employees’ desks is Yoon Jeonghan. He is the head of the marketing department. If you need help with anything, don’t go to him. He won’t lift a finger unless it’s to his benefit,” Hansol lets out a _“oh”_ and says nothing more.

Apparently in today’s events, after Jeonghan was able to pull two employee desks together, he had apparently wiped all of the important filing papers onto a “neat” pile on the floor in order to take a “well-deserved” afternoon nap following his early lunch break. Seungkwan smacked his head and groaned. Only Jeonghan would take a rest in the middle of the day with his hands behind his head as if he wasn’t in the middle of a busy office. Seungkwan is not going to even ask about whose desks those were and what those people were forced to do.

“Hyung!” Seungkwan shouts. Jeonghan barely jolts awake before rubbing his eyes and yawning. Hansol seems amused, but Seungkwan won’t let him be entertained further.

“Our new employee is here, don’t you think you should introduce yourself?” Seungkwan advised through his teeth.

“Who?” Jeonghan yawns again. “Channie? I already met him though. He’s a cutie-pie, that boy,” Jeonghan hums as he sits himself up and stretches his arms out, wacking the flower vase on the employee desk next to him. Hansol grimaces as the vase falls to the floor and breaks. Minhyuk- if Seungkwan recalls his name correctly- just stares at the broken pieces emotionlessly and then buries his head in his palms.

“No, not Chan,” Seungkwan shakes his head and gestures to Hansol. “Him. This is Hansol, he’ll be working with Jisoo over at C.A.”

Jeonghan finally looks at Hansol and whistles. His eyes give Hansol one look over from top to bottom.

“Nice.”

Hansol scratches his head bewildered, watching as Jeonghan bites his lip and gives him a greasy wink. “Thanks?”

Seungkwan groans, “Stop hitting on the new hires! And could you please get to work!”

Jeonghan jumps off the desks, not caring to put everything back in its proper place. Instead, Seungkwan does it for him with the help of Hansol. Seungkwan would thank him, but he was still on the fence about acting friendly or not- maybe when Hansol shows some actual effort and gains some common (fashion) sense.

Before Jeonghan has the opportunity to walk away, probably to find somewhere else to sleep, Seungkwan steps out in front of him. “Jeonghan, Wonwoo has been nagging me about when you’re going to email him our department’s expense list from last month! Every department has already emailed theirs except for ours!”

Jeonghan brushes his silver-grey hair out of his slender face and pats Seungkwan's head as if he were a child throwing a tantrum. “Don’t worry, I have Channie going over the expense list one last time as we speak.”

Seungkwan frowns. “Fine. But, can you please refrain from sleeping in the middle of the office and disrupting the workplace?”

Jeonghan just hums and walks off. Hansol coughs. “Charming guy.”

Seungkwan groans for the umpteenth time. “Sure is. Let’s just get this tour over with.”

 

* * *

 A bit later, Seungkwan stops in front of another desk- this time, there’s a well-dressed man actually sitting and working in front of a computer. Seungkwan taps on his desk and the navy-suited man looks up from his screen.

“What’s up Seungkwan?” he greets him casually, giving Hansol a friendly smile as well.

“I’m giving our new employee a tour of the office and introducing him too everyone,” Seungkwan responds. Hansol gives Minghao a quick wave and introduces himself, “Chwe Hansol.”

Seungkwan watches as Minghao gives Hansol one look over and nods in his direction. Being the only co-worker Seungkwan would admit to having a good sense of style, he hoped Minghao would have the same opinion as he did concerning Hansol’s fashion style. I mean he already moaned about his distress over the bland lunch he had with him this morning after all the interviews were done.

“This is Xu Minghao. He’s our Lead of Communications in the marketing department. Which basically means that he’s our social networker- our middle man of sorts.”

Hansol returns his nod and lets out a short, “cool.”

Seungkwan rolls his eyes. He stares at Minghao and sends a mental message about possibly scheduling in another rant over dinner. Hansol just stands there oblivious, his hands picking at the growing hole near his jean pocket.

Minghao gives Seungkwan a knowing look. “I mean, it’s definitely ‘out-there,’ but I think it’s alright,” he admits out loud and shrugs.

Seungkwan gasps. He takes back what he said about Minghao having good fashion tastes. He was definitely a poser if he was letting this pass. Seungkwan frowns.

Minghao chuckles before looking up at Hansol again. He wonders if Hansol knows. He thinks he must really be oblivious or completely indifferent to what they were discussing if he wasn’t saying anything about Seungkwan’s unimpressed, slightly constipated looks. Anyhow, Hansol just stood there unconcerned and smiling at them both.

“Who’s he working with?” Minghao asked, eyes re-focused on his screen and fingers typing away at his keys.

“Jisoo.”

“Oh, nice,” Minghao pauses and gives Hansol a thumbs up. “You got lucky working with Jisoo over Jeonghan. I heard Jeonghan just dumped all his work on Chan, poor guy just got here a week ago.”

“I know he just told me,” Seungkwan sighs. “I’ll help Chan when I get the chance. Which reminds me, could you email the finance department to let them know we’ll have the expense forms over by the end of this afternoon?” Minghao frowns.

“Sure. But I’m emailing Wonwoo. Last time I sent an email to Jun he wouldn’t stop sending me friend requests on Farmville. Like who still plays Farmville? On Facebook?” Minghao sputters.

Hansol coughs. The both of them slowly turn and stare judgingly as Hansol when he raises his hand. Seungkwan wants to smack himself. Of course Hansol does.

“Anyways, see you later Hansol. It was nice meeting you!” Minghao says and mouths out to Seungkwan to meet him after work. Hansol says bye back and then follows Seungkwan to the front of a glass room with a sign saying, “Digital and Creative Advertising.”

Seungkwan knocks on the door causing the few people inside to turn their heads. A man with dark feline eyes and a grey pinstripe suit stands up and walks towards them wearing a gentle smile.

“Oh, hi Seungkwan! Hey Vernon!” Hansol grins and lets the older male pull him into a hug. Seungkwan stares. “You know each other?”

Hansol nods. “I’ve known Josh since 1st year. He was my orientation leader during frosh week. He was the friend I told you about that works here!”

“Oh, yeah….um, you call him Josh?” Seungkwan then questions, not having heard anyone call the sub-department leader by that name before. 

Jisoo throws an arm around Hansol’s shoulder and looks at Seungkwan. “Joshua is my English name. But since most of you guys know me by Jisoo, I never brought it up before. Besides I didn’t really feel like hearing Soonyoung attempt saying it over and over again. We have enough of him repeating someone else’s name anyways,” Jisoo laughs.

That’s fair. Not like Seungkwan was going to start calling him ‘Josh’ anyways.

“So, I guess I don’t need to introduce you two?” Hansol shook his head and starts catching up with Jisoo about how things have been going and whatnot.

Seungkwan just waits patiently, not really sure what to do in the meantime. His ears perk up when he hears Hansol laughing loudly over an inside joke Jisoo tells him and Seungkwan can’t help, but think about how dumb his laugh sounds.

Seungkwan snickers to himself. Kind of sounded like a deeper and more robotic version of Spongebob’s laugh.

“By the way, your desk is right over there next to mine by the windows,” Jisoo points out. “And from here, you actually have a really good view of Seungkwan’s desk” Jisoo grins, giving Seungkwan a cheeky look.

Seungkwan grunts. He could never trust anyone to keep his secret rants a secret...Okay, so maybe ranting in an open space for everyone to hear wasn’t that secret, but still. It must have been Soonyoung. Everyone knows he couldn’t help but blabber. Or maybe it was Minghao. Whatever he couldn’t trust those hoes.

Hansol just purses his lips and nods. “Nice.”

 

 _Nice?_   What the hell does that mean? Wait, was that a smirk?

 

Cough. Jisoo snickers at him. Seungkwan must have been staring at Hansol too long.

“Well, since you came here pretty late into the day, I don’t really have anything for you to do. Why don’t you just stick with Seungkwan for now?” Jisoo suggests. “He wouldn’t mind, now would you Seungkwannie?”

Seungkwan wants to hit him. Jisoo was definitely hanging around Jeonghan too often.

Hansol just looks at Seungkwan with his usual indifference.

“Sure, let’s go” Seungkwan mumbles. Jisoo gives him one last teasing smile and they leave.

Before introducing the last person in their department, Seungkwan shows Hansol the basic things like their staff kitchen, their washroom, and Minghao’s coffee machine which he hated people touching (except for Jeonghan because he never listens and Minghao just gave up on telling him off).

“And this…” Seungkwan gestures to the person hunched over the rounded table in front of his and Jeonghan’s offices, “this is Chan.”

Chan looks up from the stacks of papers on his desk, adjusting the falling glasses on his nose.

“Hi, I’m Hansol.” Hansol introduces himself and sticks out a hand.

“Lee Chan,” Chan takes Hansol’s hand and shakes it. He stares down at Hansol’s wrist and looks back up with a friendly grin. “Nice watch!”

Hansol smiles back. “Chan is a new intern in our office. He’s quite new himself, so you and him aren’t that different in terms of adjusting to the workplace” Seungkwan informs him. Hansol hums, eyes staring at Chan oddly.

“How old are you?” Hansol asks curiously. Chan looks at him in surprise.

“Me?” Hansol nods. “I’m twenty-one.”

“Oh. You kind of look a lot younger...I thought you were in, like, high school or something,” Hansol scratches his head awkwardly and Chan just laughs.

“I get that a lot. Everyone says I look like a kid. I guess it doesn’t help that I’m not that tall…” Chan laughs sheepishly. “Then there’s Jeonghan who won’t stop calling me his baby-child and Soonyoung who has apparently adopted me as his own, so…” Chan admits with even more embarrassment.

Seungkwan shook Chan’s hair fondly and laughs. “Well, you are the maknae of the office. By the way, leave some of those papers on the side. I’ll help you out later Channie.”

Chan stares at Seungkwan silently for a few seconds, but then lets out a dramatic cry of Seungkwan’s name and clings to his waist.

“Oh god, thank you. I thought Jeonghan was going to drown me in his paperwork. What would I do without you?” Chan hugs Seungkwan tighter and Seungkwan can’t help, but coo.

Meanwhile, Hansol just watches clearly entertained by how soft Seungkwan was being.

“Hansol,” Chan calls his attention, “my advice to you is, if you have any questions, don’t ask Jeonghan ask Seungkwan-hyung. Seungkwan’s a great guy, so he’ll help you out in a cinch.”

Hansol raises a brow and glances at Seungkwan. Seungkwan looks away shyly, but pats Chan’s head anyways. He hopes Hansol never bothers him.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Hansol smirks. _Crap..._

“Okay, so I think that was ev-” Seungkwan was about to conclude, but was interrupted when a heavy weight crashed into his back knocking him into Hansol’s chest.

 

“SEUNGKWANNIE!” a shrill voice cried out.

 

Seungkwan curses under his breath, not realizing his head was still pressed against Hansol’s firm chest. His hands were pressed up against his chest as well. _Solid. Nice._ _Pretty well-defined muscles too, surprisingly._

Hansol coughs. Seungkwan blinks and immediately steps back.

“Seungkwan!!” Soonyoung cried once again tugging on Seungkwan’s suit.

“What?” Seungkwan snapped. Soonyoung pouted.

“Kwannie, you meanie~ You never brought your friend up to my office!” Soonyoung sulked with his arms crossed. Although as soon as he saw Hansol he quickly fixed a stupid grin on his face.

Not knowing who the man was or how to respond, Hansol looked helplessly at Seungkwan. Tiredly, Seungkwan massaged his temples and then introduced him to his overly-excited boss.

“Hansol, this is Kwon Soonyoung. He is the CEO of K&W Corporations. His father is the original founder, but since two years ago this guy took over,” Seungkwan pointed at the giddy grown man.

“Oh, it’s nice to finally meet you sir,” Hansol bowed politely.

Soonyoung smiled widely, eyes disappearing as he gives Hansol a proud pat.

“Glad to have you in the family, Hansol!” Soonyoung greeted him using his over-done elderly impression. It was something that everyone in the office thought was on the verge of becoming overly-annoying, but Soonyoung persists nonetheless. Hansol stood straight, letting out an awkward laugh and smile.

As Hansol smiled, Soonyoung being the person he was, swooned and fanned himself playfully.

“What a looker? Aren’t I right, Seungkwan?” Soonyoung pointedly nudged Seungkwan’s waist.

Hansol looked at him as if he was expecting a response. Seungkwan ignored him. Instead, Seungkwan turned to his boss with his arms crossed.

“What are you doing here?” Seungkwan scolded.

“I just wanted to see my adopted son, Channie, and ask if he wanted to get lunch with his ol’ man!” Soonyoung leaned his head to the side to wave energetically at Chan. Looking mortified, Chan shook his head and continued to work.

“Does Jihoon know you’re here?” Seungkwan crossed his arms and asked. Hansol chuckled seeing Soonyoung pout like a punished child.

Seungkwan was about to pull out his phone to send Jihoon a quick text, but Soonyoung quickly covered his phone with his stubby fingers.

“Ehhh~ Let’s not interrupt him. I sent him over to C.A. to hand in a file to Jisoo. I also left a heart-shaped sticky note inside, but Jihoon doesn’t know,” Soonyoung cackles and smacks Hansol on the back, which forces an unexpected cough out of him.

Seungkwan shook his head in disapproval. His boss was playing matchmaker again. He felt bad for Jihoon, but he should have known Soonyoung would not not do anything after hearing about his little crush on Jisoo.

“Come on, you know just how flustered he gets around him,” Soonyoung chuckles. “It’s quite funny how awkward he is. He acts as if he doesn’t go on and on in front of us about how smitten he is.”

Hansol snickers. “Interesting, never knew Josh had an admirer around here. He was always pretty much ‘to-himself’ in uni.”

Seungkwan wants to smash his head in when he hears Soonyoung try to mimic Hansol’s accent. “Josheu? JoSHeu?” Here we go.

Hansol laughs, “Yeah, Josh. Just call him Hong though. He’ll like it,” Hansol suggests with a evil grin remembering what Jisoo had said earlier about Soonyoung’s tendencies.

Seungkwan wants to die. Soonyoung looks like he's actually taking it into consideration. “Hong? Hong...HONG!”

Chan groans from his desk. The poor guy was just trying to get work done. Meanwhile, Hansol was laughing obnoxiously and Seungkwan was thinking about how much his boss sounded like the seagulls from Finding Nemo with his non-stop chanting of ‘Hong.’

 

 _Lord, please help me through the week..._

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n things are just starting. i hope you enjoyed this chapter~


	4. Noodle Thief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hansol 'steals' some noodles and Seungkwan tries to help Jihoon with his boy-problems.

 

The following week after the whole orientation fiasco was “Italian Appreciation Week” at the office, which Seungkwan never understood because almost 95% of their staff were Korean. Moreover, 0% of their staff were Italian. Yet _apparently_ , Soonyoung came up with the idea to celebrate different nationalities and ethnicities each month to show how welcoming and accepting their company was of all individual backgrounds. 

 

But, Seungkwan knew that was a load of crap. He knew Soonyoung’s true intent was to get Mingyu and Seokmin to start whipping up different tasty dishes for him to eat each month. Honestly, if it weren’t for that cheeky satisfied grin on his face that he wore every time he made his way from the cafeteria and up to his office, Seungkwan might have fell for his previous reasonings. Although, Seungkwan wouldn’t argue against his decision, especially when he would be able to have a slice of Seokmin’s special  hearty three-cheese lasagna and Mingyu’s herby garlic ciabatta bread for lunch today. 

 

After filing the time-sheets, he headed down to the 6th floor cafeteria with his mouth drooling in hunger. Seungkwan couldn’t wait to have the delicious food in his mouth and in his grumbling stomach. Hopefully, if he wasn’t late enough he would be able to soften the two chefs up to give him double servings of each. They were soft on him and Seungkwan used it to his advantage. Apparently it was his cheeks that made them cave every time, but Seungkwan so no wrong in that.

 

Seungkwan hummed as he entered the cafeteria, waving at the two familiar faces behind the counter.

 

“Hey Boo!” Seokmin smiled brightly and waved back with a metal serving spoon in his hand. Seungkwan gleamed. There was just something about the latter’s smile that just brightened his day, maybe it was his radiant pearly whites or his sunlike presence- anyhow, Seokmin was one of his first friends at the office and he could always trust in him for a pick-me up.

 

“Hi Minnie! How has your day been?” Seungkwan asked cheerily, noting the way Seokmin’s shoulders deflated when asked.

 

“Hectic. Mingyu has been running around the kitchen with bins of chopped veggies and tripping over every non-existent rug we own. I’ve had to chop about 3 bags worth of yellow onions today and I swear I have no tears left to cry,” Seokmin whined.

 

“Well,” a sweaty-looking Mingyu came out of the kitchen carrying a fresh hot tray of fragrant garlic bread, “like what a wise woman once said. We just got to keep up with the hecticness. You know, we just got to pick it up. _Lovin’ and livin’, and pickin’ it up_.” Mingyu laughs,  singing and dancing clumsily- almost spilling the food on the floor because of his over-shaking hips.  

 

Seungkwan snickered. Seokmin glared at the taller male giving him a playful slap to his arm. But despite his annoyance, he still helped the clumsy oaf transfer the steamy bread onto the awaiting heating racks.

 

Then, as if reset, Seokmin’s smile found its way back to his face and he gestured to a slice of garlic bread to Seungkwan’s empty plate. Seungkwan nodded enthusiastically, his plate being stacked with two slices of garlic deliciousness.

 

Seungkwan stepped to the side and looked for the lasagna next. He frowned.

“Where’s the lasagna?” Mingyu scratched the back of his neck and grimaced. Seungkwan grimaced back. _How unsanitary._ “Sorry to break it to you bud, but the person ahead of you just got the last piece.”

 

 _Dun-dun._  Seungkwan felt his heart drop, his natural pout protruding out more than usual. Seokmin panicked tuning into his maternal instincts.

 

“B-but wait! We still have some pesto alfredo o-or you could have spaghetti and those over-sized meatballs you used to like!” Seungkwan hissed, his head turning to hunt down the person who stole his precious noodles and cheese.

 

“Who was it?” Mingyu put his hands up to his chest as Seungkwan poked him.

 

“Woah there! Fine, it was the new guy over there sitting with Jisoo!” Seungkwan looked to where Mingyu was pointing. There they were sitting happily across from one another eating away at their lunches.

 

_Hansol._

 

Seungkwan snarled. Seokmin looked scared as he watched Seungkwan internally plot against the male. “H-hey buddy, it isn’t that big of a deal. I can whip up a new batch!”

 

Seungkwan couldn’t hear him. His body was already making its way over to the two chattering men. Jisoo noticed him first and greeted him. Hansol noticed after, his fork about to make its way into his mouth with _his_ lasagna.

 

Seungkwan stood there arms crossed and foot tapping. Hansol put his fork down and looked at him oddly.

 

“Um. Can I do something for you?” Hansol blinked. Seungkwan squinted his eyes.

 

“It’s not about what you can do, it’s about what you’ve done!” Seungkwan complained. Jisoo watched the encounter amused, fingers already tapping away at his phone. He was most likely spilling about this to Minghao or Jeonghan, but he couldn’t care.

 

Hansol looked even more confused. “Uhh, sorry?”

 

Seungkwan huffed in annoyance, “Just don’t do it again!”

 

Hansol nodded slowly. _What was he not to do again?_ He wasn’t sure.

 

Just as Seungkwan was about to leave, he whipped back around and stomped back to stand in front of the puzzled male. Hansol flinched at his loud, shrill voice.

 

“And stop wearing those god-awful sandals! No one wants to see your bare feet in the middle of the day!” Seungkwan protested, Hansol’s feet covering one another in embarrassment. Hansol coughed awkwardly. Jisoo laughed quietly to himself.

 

“ _Shut-up, Josh…_ ” Hansol whined silently to his jeering friend.

 

“Sorry, didn’t know it bothered you so much…” Seungkwan grumbled as Hansol apologized in response. His fluffy, unorganized brunette hair hanging in front of his face.

 

He kind of looked like a scolded puppy...Okay, so this was a little uncalled for. Seungkwan felt a little bit bad for his outburst. _Just a_ _little._

 

Seungkwan scrunched his face and stomped away. Hansol and Jisoo watched as he sat at a far table alone and stuffed his face with his luke-warm garlic bread. Mingyu snickered at his misery as usual- just like everyone at this forsaken office seemed to. At least Seokmin was enough of a sweetheart to comfort him by giving him a stack of his freshly-baked chocolate pizzelle cookies.

 

Seungkwan munched away at the crisp sweets, not really minding that Seokmin was petting his head like a disgruntled cat. He would have to keep an eye on Hansol this week. _Who knows how else he would invade his space?_

* * *

 

**Few days later…**

 

_What was he doing?_

 

After getting Hansol acquainted with his daily tasks, Jisoo had let Hansol wander freely within their office, which meant Seungkwan was able to finally see what he was up to outside of the C.A.’s enclosure.

 

As usual he wasn’t wearing a typical suit like the rest of them, but instead he was wearing these weird greyish corduroy pants and a pink oversized hoodie along with some off-white sneakers.

 

No one questioned it or called him out for it, which still bothered Seungkwan to the moon and back.

 

Not focusing on the progress report he was supposed to be writing, he watched as Hansol exited their room and down the small hallway.

 

Ever since Jisoo let him free, Seungkwan watched Hansol like a hawk- as if he was prepared to catch him finally screw something up in the office. Because based on his deductions, if he was just as careless and indifferent as he first appeared, then he would surely botch something up.

 

Letting his curiosity get the best of him, Seungkwan decided to get up and follow him which made Chan’s head pop-up from his desk in brief interest.

 

At first, Seungkwan watched as Hansol walked straight into their staff-kitchen and opened up _all_ the cabinets. He seemed to be looking for something of some sort...but, then again maybe he wasn’t. He wasn’t sure because soon after Hansol just stood there and hummed dissonantly to himself. Seungkwan wasn’t a professional singer himself, but he could definitely tell Hansol wasn’t one either. Seconds later he was doing that weird-ass “shoot” dance that Seungkwan found amusingly befitting for someone like Hansol. Shortly after, he leaves and turns the corner to enter the men’s bathroom.

 

 _Okay, so nothing out of the ordinary_ . Seungkwan grumbles in disappointment. Following the sounds of the automatic hand-dryer, Hansol leaves the bathroom and walks over to get some water from their office’s shared water dispenser. Seungkwan follows over, peeking around the corner to observe. Hansol just stands there again. He hums a different song- _Shakira? Or maybe it was Jai Ho?-_  and taps his left foo-

 

“ _What are you doing?_ ”

 

Seungkwan screeches, but quickly covers his and the other person’s mouths shoving the both of them harshly around the corner. Hansol doesn’t seem to hear them and continues doing... _whatever he was doing_.

 

Seungkwan  breathes out in relief.

 

“MMM-” Seungkwan somehow forgets that he’s practically suffocating another person and quickly releases his heated hand. The person, who he realizes is Jihoon, lets out a gasp of air and glares at him.

 

“Sorry.”

 

“What are you doing?” Jihoon interrogates, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve. Seungkwan shrinks as Jihoon stands before him judgingly. If anyone was to judge the crap out of him, it would be Jihoon. For someone so tiny, there was a lot of bite in that lithe body of his. It was no wonder why his first impression of him was terrifyingly strict and hard to please. Although that was all before he got to personally know him and discover how much of a teddy-bear he was, especially for Jisoo.

 

“I’m keeping an eye on Hansol” Seungkwan admits, eyes still flickering over to see if Hansol was still in sight.

 

“Hansol?” Jihoon asks, shifting through faces in his head to match the unknown name. “Oh,the new employee working over in Jisoo’s department?”

 

“Uh-huh” Seungkwan responds, not really listening to Jihoon because instead of being in front of the water dispenser, Hansol was now animatedly talking to Chan about a show on tv. It must have been funny because now he was doing that dumb Spongebob laugh of his. Seungkwan snickers.

 

“Jisoo talks a lot about him. When I saw him yesterday he looked so smiley and glowing. He kept calling me ‘Jihoonie’ and he just had this sparkle in his eye when he talked to me about him,” Jihoon murmurs, his teeth worrying at his lip. “He must like him, huh? Maybe they like dated in the past or something… or….maybe they’re _still_ dating?” Jihoon’s frown deepens at the thought.

 

Seungkwan looks away from the conversing maknaes and turns to stare at Jihoon judgingly. _What a fool._

 

“ _What?_ Stop looking at me like that,” Jihoon hisses.

 

“Why don’t you just ask him out for, like, lunch already?” Seungkwan suggests, hand on his hip. Jihoon sputters in response and flaps his arms at his sides like a newborn baby bird.

 

“You know I can’t. Someone like me can’t ask out a person like- like Jisoo! That’s just bogus advice! You suck!” Jihoon sneered. Seungkwan rolled his eyes. And people call him _dramatic_.

 

“First off, I never said to ask him out on a _date_ or anything. And why is it so impossible for you that you can’t even consider the prospect of possibly eating together? You’ve known each other since you both started working here for goodness sake.”  

 

“W-well you know him, he’s just good at talking to people and being nice and shit,” Jihoon smacks a hand over his eyes and moans, “and I’m just...emotionally and socially inept. Like, I’m actual crap with my words and expressing my...you know... _feelings_.” Jihoon cringed.

 

Seungkwan chortles, “at least you know.” _Smack!_ Yeah, he should have expected a smack to the face.

 

“Shut-up,” Jihoon mopes. Seungkwan caresses his reddened cheek and sighs. Jihoon was pouting. It was a rare event, but Seungkwan knew that when he did that it meant that something was really bothering him.

 

Okay, so maybe Seungkwan pitied him a bit. _How couldn’t he?_ Everyone knew about his office crush and mocked him about it. Thankfully, Jisoo didn’t seem to know about it - god knows how he- but Seungkwan couldn’t tell how much longer Jihoon could go before he exploded from enduring his long period of emotional constipation.

 

“Listen,” he places a hand on Jihoon’s slumped shoulder,“Hansol is just a friend from his university. Based on their conversation yesterday, Jisoo seems to treat him more like a younger brother than anything else. You’re fine, Ji. Just.. _please_ try to initiate something beyond ‘How are you?’ or ‘Hi Jisoo, you look... _okay_ today’?” Jihoon grimaces at the last comment, but Seungkwan still comforts his friend who looks up at him in thanks.

 

“I’ll try,” Jihoon mumbles and turns to leave before yelling, “good luck with the stalking!” Seungkwan freezes.

 

“I’m not stalking!” Seungkwan sneers. He turns around to peer around the corner again.

 

 _Shit_. He lost Hansol.

 

“ _Who are you stalking?_ ” Seungkwan screams once again. One more time and he’ll probably go through cardiac arrest.

 

“ _What the sh-_ When did you get here?” Seungkwan clutches his chest in surprise and stares at Hansol with wide eyes. Somehow, Hansol was standing right behind him and looking at him funnily.

 

“I saw you just standing there yelling at nothing and got curious,” he shrugged. His soft-looking hair flouncing as he unknowingly bounced in his spot.

 

“I-I...it’s none of your business!” Seungkwan snapped. His ears were definitely flushed and so were his cheeks. Seungkwan quickly flees, not seeing the way Hansol chuckles somewhat fondly to himself.

 

 _Whelp,_ there goes Operation: "Catch Hansol Doing Shifty Things."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n i'm so happy that you guys are liking it! this series was really roughly planned, but i'll try my best to update frequently/ also don't hesitate to comment :)


	5. Heaven's Biceps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wonwoo goes into hiding & Seungkwan meets his teenage dream.

Expecting normality in the office space was something Seungkwan learned early on to never hope for. Even when he walked into the office on a lovely Monday morning with his usual iced americano with two pumps of vanilla syrup, he realized that no morning would start off according to schedule.

 

“Chan?”

 

“Yeah?” Chan answered mindlessly, still typing away at his keyboard to keep up with the vast amount of papers which _suspiciously_ piled up higher and higher each day.

 

“Why is there a stack of empty candy bar wrappers on my desk?” Seungkwan gestured to the massive pile of foil on top of his formerly clean desk. He obviously had a suspicion that it was his lovely partner of directing, but hearing Chan’s response helped to verify that- yes, indeed it was his “superior” that was a heathen.

 

“Jeonghan, of course.”

 

Seungkwan sighed. Not even one day. He couldn't even relax for one day. “Do you know where he is Chan?”

 

“Hm…” Chan stopped and spun in his chair to face him, “the last time I saw him, he was over by Hao’s desk chatting with Wonwoo and Jisoo. I overheard Jeonghan yelling about who had the least flattest ass among the four of them,” Seungkwan wanted to face-palm. Only Jeonghan would start such a conversation at the break of day.

 

Chan grimaced, “I stopped listening as soon as Jeonghan started yelling out measurements though…”

 

“Alright, thanks Channie!” Seungkwan shook his head as walked away. Poor innocent Channie, having to be tainted by the silver-haired devil.

 

Walking over to Minghao’s desk, Seungkwan knew right away that Jeonghan wasn’t there. As soon as Seungkwan approached them, the men stopped talking amidst themselves and gave Seungkwan a morning nod.

 

“Hey Seungkwan,” Jisoo smiled. Seungkwan looked around him. He didn’t see any signs of rainbow fabric or baggy clothing anywhere, which was unusual. _Hansol must actually be busy with work._

 

“Hi, Seungkwan,” Wonwoo grinned as he leaned on the side of Minghao's desk. It was a rare sight to see Wonwoo in their department, especially with all of the late work Jeonghan sent over to the Finance department; but, Mondays were a special case. Everyone in the office knew Mondays were the only days anyone could catch Wonwoo hiding around in their office space.

 

“Still playing hide and seek with your stalker?” Seungkwan joked which prompted an exasperated sigh from Wonwoo. Minghao snickered.

 

“Jihoon has him locked up in the meeting on our floor, so _hopefully_ I will be able to escape hours of harassment up until,” Wonwoo fixed the glasses on his nose and looked down at his wrist to count the time, “probably around lunch time. I’m free up till lunch, then the wild predator is on the loose again.”

 

“Ehh~ stalking and harrassing is a little bit too much, don’t you think? Soonyoung couldn’t hurt a fly. Why don’t you just let him down already if you don’t like him following you around everywhere? You know he just _really_ likes you.” Jisoo wrapped an arm around Wonwoo’s narrow shoulder, toes slightly lifted off the ground to make the stretch.

 

“He _does not_ like me. He just finds it fun to tease me all day. Likes seeing how irritated I get or something like that…” Wonwoo sighed. Seungkwan shook his head in dismay. How was it that everyone in this office was so goddamn oblivious?

 

“That’s not what I hear from Jihoon,” Minghao chimed in. “Jihoon said that he almost bashed his head into the wall after listening to Soonyoung moan for hours about how much he loves Wonwoo’s little face-scrunches when he laughs or how cute his love for cats is. Soonyoung has two large bumps on the top of his head because of how hard Jihoon hit him!”

 

Wonwoo rolled his eyes as he listened. Jisoo gave him a comforting pat and unwrapped his arm.

 

“You never know, Wonwoo~ Give the man a chance! Soonyoung has been doting over you since you first started working here!” Wonwoo scoffed and mumbled something under his breath.

 

“ _Longer than that…_ ”

 

Seungkwan raised his left brow in curiosity, which made Wonwoo shift his eyes away from him after realizing that he had actually picked up on that. Seungkwan should ask about that later.

 

“Do you guys know where Jeonghan went?” Jisoo perked up and answered.

 

“Jeonghan’s at the gym.” The _gym_ ? _Jeonghan?_ Seungkwan looked at them questioningly.

 

“We _are_ talking about the same Yoon Jeonghan that works in this office, right?” Jisoo laughed heartily and continued.

 

“Taking a nap. He’s at the gym taking a nap. Seungcheol lets him stay down there while he cleans the gym on break.” Minghao laughed in response.

 

“Cheol really just lets Jeonghan take advantage of him, doesn’t he? He doesn’t even use any of the equipment when he’s down there,” he chuckles and the other two- except Seungkwan- laugh in response.

 

“Yeah, Seungcheol is too nice for his own good sometimes. I heard from Hyun-woo that he got caught holding the front door for 1 whole hour because a mass load of workers kept coming in,” Wonwoo snickers.

 

Seungkwan just stands there as the three add in different comments about this ‘Seungcheol’ guy and how he likes to wear medium-length socks with a pair of over-worn beach sandals. He didn’t even know this guy, but that fact alone made him shudder. _Hansol 2.0 was it?_

 

“Who’s _Seungcheol?_ ” Seungkwan cuts in and the three look back at him in surprise.

 

“You don’t know Seungcheol?” Minghao blinks.

 

“No. I have been working here for almost 3 years now and I’ve never met or heard of a ‘Seungcheol’ working in this office building.” Jisoo snickered.

 

“Probably because you’ve never once gone to the company gym.” Seungkwan scoffs, insulted by Jisoo’s comment.

 

“Are you calling me fat?!” Seungkwan sneered. Jisoo pats his head and tries to settle him with cooing sounds. Seungkwan hisses.

 

“No, I’m not. We just know you’ve never once gone down to the gym or any other facility besides the cafeteria on break- not even on your first day to explore the company building. Everyone has done it. This is building is renown for having the best and most extensive worker facilities. Although, you don't seem to care. You just work and work all day.” Seungkwan frowns and grumbles something under his breath about having lots of work. Jisoo just shakes his head.

 

“Seungcheol has been working here long before you even started,” Wonwoo informs him. Seungkwan frown grows.

 

“Then how come I’ve never seen him at company events or, like, run into him inside the cafeteria?”

 

“He usually doesn’t go to those things, says that he’d rather stay in and play video games or play with his millions of cats. And apparently the cafeteria isn’t ‘vegan’ friendly enough for his extreme muscle-head diet,” Jisoo shrugged. _A muscle-head and a fashion terrorist_ . _Wow._

 

“Why don’t you go down there and introduce yourself? I think you two would get along _very_ well,” Minghao grinned suggestively and winked. Seungkwan didn’t get the message, but he's starting to think Minghao might actually be absorbing some of Mingyu’s idiocy. He knew it wasn’t a good idea for the two to become roommates. Oh well, at least they had Seokmin...which may  or may not be worse.

 

“Fine.” _Ding!_ Seungkwan sighs and takes his phone out of his pocket to read the incoming message. “Oh...by the way, Wonwoo?”

 

Wonwoo hums.

 

“You have three minutes. Jihoon says the meetings ending,” Seungkwan smirks. Wonwoo groans, slamming his head on Jisoo’s shoulder. Jisoo gives him a sympathizing pat.

 

“Good luck.”

 

* * *

 

**6TH FLOOR- STAFF GYM**

 

Throughout the 3 years that he has worked at K&W Corporation, Seungkwan has never once been to the 6th floor. But, it wasn’t like he didn’t know what was down here- he just didn’t feel the need to go. Sliding his hands down the side of his body, Seungkwan gave himself a comforting pat. He wouldn't say that his body was in poor shape or anything. He would say that he was pretty healthy. He even tried to stay away from greasy or unhealthy foods- you know, disregarding the large portion of cheesy lasagna he had last week or the fast-food hamburger he had last night.

 

As Seungkwan exited the elevator doors, he walked straight out and was greeted by the sight of a large glass divider separating the gym from the space where the elevators were. Peaking in, he could see two male figures- one incredibly familiar and another that was incredibly unfamiliar, but definitely caught Seungkwan by surprise.

 

Seungkwan could feel his mouth drop and his eyes widen. This guy was _GORGEOUS._ Even with Jeonghan just lazily lying there on the floor, nothing could distract Seungkwan from staring at the black-haired, ripped-ass, beautiful-ass man standing in the centre of the gym putting away weights two at a time. If it weren’t for Seungkwan’s sense of decency, he honestly would have drooled all over the company floor.

 

 _Seungcheol_ , who Seungkwan will from now on refer to as “Heaven’s biceps,” was the definition of his teenage dream. If highschool-Seungkwan would have seen present-Seungcheol in one of his teenage fashion magazines back in his flamboyant days of crazing over male models, he would have gone absolute bonkers.

 

He paused in front of the glass when Seungcheol smiled down at Jeonghan who was talking to him with his eyes closed and lying down on a yoga-mat.

 

_UGH, that smile~_

 

He can’t believe he’s never met this god of a man. Seungkwan swooned as Seungcheol picked up another dumbbell with a flexed arm. _Ughhh~_  

 

 _I can’t introduce myself looking like-_ Seungkwan looked down at his suit which was now slightly wrinkled from all the moving and had a small brown stain where his ass was from sitting on one of Jeonghan’s melted chocolate wrappers. Seungkwan shuddered just thinking about giving Seungcheol the impression that he had  _shat_ himself during work.

 

Just as Seungkwan was about to turn back and escape, Seungcheol turned around and bent over to pick up the unused yoga mats beside Jeonghan's motionless body. Speaking of ‘ripped-ass, beautiful-ass’- Seungkwan gasped as he caught a glimpse of the most wonderful posterior he's ever seen _(besides his own)_. That _ass_. Oh, how wonderful a full-shaped tush could look upon those heaven-sculpted thighs. Seungkwan moaned. Aguste Rodin must have sculpted the Thinker’s thighs after his thighs.  

 

 _This was it._ Highschooler Boo Seungkwan had returned and he had just found his new crush. Seungkwan bit his lips as Seungcheol straightened up again, shoulders wider than the Jeju sea. It may have been a superficial crush based on Seungcheol’s excellent build alone, but it was a crush nonetheless. He would definitely need all the help he could get to make a move. He just needed someone willing to come to the gym everyday...but _who_?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n double update-ish...things are starting to develop.


	6. Gym Buddies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone acts like stereotypical anime girls stuck in a rom-com anime... (〃￣ω￣〃ゞ <3

 “Chan!”

 

“What is it now, Seungkwan?” Chan tilted his head tiredly. The pile of paper from earlier was somehow still the same size as though he hadn’t even made a dent in the work that he had to get done by the end of today.

 

“You need to come to the gym with me!” Seungkwan pleaded, his arms reaching out to hold him by his arms. After he had headed up from the 6th floor, Seungkwan had run around asking everyone to go ‘workout’ with him. Minghao- the traitor- teased him and ended up rejecting him because he didn’t want to sweat in his new suit _(which Seungkwan gifted him, btw)_. Apparently, Jisoo was busy making phone calls for a project and Wonwoo was off hiding who knows where. And god knows Seungkwan wasn’t going to ask Hansol to work out with him or let him make fun of him for the next hour. Chan was the last hope.

 

“All of a sudden?” Chan frowned. Seungkwan pouted and swung his body side-to-side.

 

“Pwease! Seungkwannie needs a gym buddy~ And he knows it’s Channie’s break soon~ Pwease, Channie~” Seungkwan whined with his high-pitched baby voice. Chan grimaced hard. _Ew._

 

“Hyung, I still have a lot of work left. I won’t even have time for a lunch break today with all this work,” Chan complained letting his shoulders droop in despair.

 

“I’ll do half of it! More than half even! I’ll even buy you lunch!” Seungkwan offered desperately. Chan was intrigued by the offer, but was evidently weirded out by Seungkwan’s enthusiasm to do something other than work for a change.

 

“Sure, I guess… just let me get something and I’ll meet you down there in ten.” Seungkwan cheered and jumped in his spot excitedly. Chan just shook his head as he walked off. Seungkwan grinned. _Heaven’s Biceps, here I come!_  

 

* * *

 

_Why?_

 

“What are _you_ doing here?” Seungkwan scowled. Standing next to Chan in the elevator shaft was a peppy Hansol geared up in a miss-mash of 80’s workout gear and cargo pants from the 2000s.

 

“I’m here to workout! Chan said that you guys were working out at the staff gym and invited me to come along,” Hansol smiled. Seungkwan glared at Chan, who was whistling and looking anywhere but at Seungkwan's pissed-off face.

 

“Fine! But, don’t bother me. I-uh, I am really serious about working out, so…” Seungkwan grunted as Chan looked at him judgingly. _Really, hyung? Are you? Since when?_

 

“Sure, no problem. I just wanted to check this place out since you mentioned it. I haven’t got to workout since my gym membership expired,” Hansol commented as the three of them walked beside each other to the entrance. Seungkwan looked down at Hansol’s chest and back up. _No wonder his chest was so firm._

 

Hansol coughs and looks away. Chan opens the door for the three of them and Seungkwan perks up as soon as he sees Seungcheol turned around and speaking to Jeonghan who was there to take his second nap of the day.

“Hello! We’re here to work out!” Seungkwan jumps in front and chirps energetically, the two men behind him staring strangely at the back of his head.

 

“Oh, Seungkwannie! How nice of you to leave the cave!” Jeonghan teased as he sat up from the rolled out yoga-mat. Seungkwan almost snapped, but stopped as soon as Seungcheol turned around to show his gummy smiling face.

“Hi, how can I he-” Seungcheol stopped mid-sentence and stared. The three men looked at the trainer patiently and waited for him to continue, but Seungcheol just stood there frozen. Jeonghan rolled his eyes and pinched the skin of Seungcheol’s leg in between his fingers.

 

“AH!” Seungcheol yelped, but continued to stare in front of him as he rubbed the red mark on his leg. Jeonghan was really close to side-kicking him as the three young men stood there unsure of why he was staring like a goldfish.

“This is Seungcheol. He’ll train you for however long. Change rooms are in the back. We have spare clothes in there,” Jeonghan fills them in on all the details and leads them away from his dumbified friend.

“Uh, okay…” Seungkwan mumbles disappointingly as the the three of them walk to away to change clothes. Chan chuckles as he passes Seungcheol and Jeonghan just gives him a look of shame.

 

* * *

 

To be honest, Seungcheol always thought of himself as a pretty good-looking guy. There were several office women and men checking him out everyday on his way to the staff’s gym. Moreover, there were even more people coming in to “train,” but were really using it as an excuse to feel up his biceps.

 

But never, until this moment, had Seungcheol ever seen a man so beautiful and magnificent like the one that walked in at that moment. As the three newly-dressed men returned to the main room, he froze again, hand dropping the 5lb dumbbell onto the ground- not hearing the yelp of the person he  dropped it on- and stared at the new incomer.

 

“OW! FU-my goddamn toe! Cheol, what the fu-?” Jeonghan screamed clinging onto his toe in tears, clearly awoken from his nap on the blue mat. Seungcheol didn’t hear him.

 

He was coming towards him. _Shit!_ Seungcheol’s eyes widened. He pushed Jeonghan off the yoga mats hurriedly, rolled up one mat, and fled to the back storage room to seem busy. Jeonghan, who was pushed to the side, now laid flat on his stomach groaning from pain.

 

“Hey Jeonghan-hyung! Where did your friend go?” Jeonghan looked up. It was Chan, Hansol, and Seungkwan.

 

“Oh, hey baby!” Jeonghan cooed. Chan groaned as Jeonghan got up to pinch his cheeks. Seungcheol’s eye twitched from where he was spying on the group of three men. _Baby?_

 

Chan sighed as Jeonghan continued to baby him and Hansol just laughed behind his fist. “You working out, hyung?” Hansol asked and Chan let out a puff of air. “Him? Pff, please.”

 

“Hey, how else would I get this bomb-ass figure?” Jeonghan remarked, spinning himself around to give them a few poses, finishing with a lavish pose on the bench press behind him.  Chan rolled his eyes, but grinned anyways. Hansol clapped in fake applause as Jeonghan bowed dramatically.

 

He truly was beautiful. Seungcheol sighed dreamily. He wasn’t sure who this Chan guy was, but he has to get to know him somehow. Maybe he could ask Jeonghan for a favour?

 

Seungcheol shudders. _Nope_. That was _not_ happening. Last time he asked Jeonghan for something, the guy made him wear the most indecent looking pair of gym shorts to work. They were obscenely short and skin that usually never saw the light was out in the open that day. Let’s just say everyone stared at his ass and Jeonghan wouldn’t stop smacking each second he bent over to pick things up.

 

“ _Excuse me?_ ”

 

Seungcheol screamed, body involuntarily folding in on itself with his arms pulled into his chest. When he opens his eyes again- which were closed in fright, he notices that Jeonghan, Hansol, and Chan were now all looking at him. He flushes.

 

“S-sorry for scaring you,” Seungkwan stutters as he looks at Seungcheol with wide eyes. Seungcheol turns his side and realizes that it was just one of the guys that came with Chan. Seungcheol feels like he has seen him before, but he couldn’t really remember his name.

 

“N-no, that’s alright,” Seungcheol clears his voice. Seungkwan looks down at his feet, one leg swinging back and forth shyly. “How can I help you?”

 

“I was wonderi-” “Seungkwan!” Seungcheol looks away and notices Chan calling out to the guy in front of him. Seungkwan murmurs to himself. _Darn it, Chan. You couldn’t pick a better moment?_

 

Seungcheol and Seungkwan walk back out into the open after Chan calls after him. Hansol looks at Seungkwan oddly as he flushes. Seungcheol was only a finger’s width away from him and Seungkwan was literally freaking out like a teenage girl.

 

Hansol watches them and realizes. “Ah…”

 

“So, you three wanted to train?” Seungcheol asks and the trio nods in response. “Um, I’ve never trained three at once before. There’s only me here, so it’ll be hard to train all three of you at once.”

 

“Why don’t we pair up?” Hansol suggests, looking quickly at Seungkwan and then back to Seungcheol. Seungkwan blinks, but grins happily at the thought of having one-on-one time with Seungcheol. _He’ll have to thank Hansol for once._

 

“P-pair up?” Seungcheol stutters, eyes flickering from Chan’s face to the other two men. He can hear Jeonghan snickering from his yoga mat. “T-that’s a great idea!”

 

Seungkwan cheers internally and looks at Seungcheol expectantly. Chan didn’t seem to be interested, mind occupied elsewhere (probably calculating the time he had left to work on what he had left to do). Hansol just hummed along to the Post Malone song playing in the background and rocked back and forth on his heels.

 

“Uhh, w-why don’t…” Seungcheol stuttered as he kept his finger pointed in the air. How was he going to pair himself with Chan without screwing things up and embarrassing himself. Jeonghan coughed. He looked down and sent him a dire look.

 

“Seungkwan, you go with Hansol. Chan go with Seungcheol,” Jeonghan ordered sleepily as he swept his silver hair out of his face. Seungkwan opened his mouth in protest, but was interrupted by Seungcheol’s clap.

 

“Perfect! Buddy up and we’ll get started!” Seungcheol smiled gummily and the workout begun. Seungkwan cursed Jeonghan in his head. _Never good for anything._

 

Hansol sighed and gave Seungkwan a pitying stare. “Let’s go workout-buddy.”

 

* * *

 

After the horrible workout, Seungkwan felt his whole body almost fail on him as he walked into the cafeteria with Hansol and Chan. His knees were literally quivering and he felt sweat drenching his entire back. Meanwhile, Hansol was looking only slightly flushed and Chan was basically the same, except way more energetic than he or Hansol was.

 

“How are..you...not...dead?” Seungkwan panted. He felt like his lungs were about to explode. Hansol laughed as he sat down while Chan got them some drinks.

 

“I’m tired, but it wasn’t _that_ bad,” Seungkwan scoffs and sinks into the cold metal chair. He lets out a pleased moan when he feels the cold metal on his heated skin. “Oh lord, I don’t think I can go back~”

 

Hansol laughs and patted him on the shoulder. Seungkwan would have smacked his hand off him, but he was too tired to even try to lift his sore arm. Seungcheol wasn’t joking when he said he was going to train them to the bone. With all of the weightlifting he did today, Seungkwan felt like he was just a pile of bones. The only benefit was seeing Seungcheol all hot and sweaty. He even had Seungcheol help him a few times which allowed him to be face-to-face with those heavenly biceps.

 

Seungkwan sighed dreamily as he laid his head on the table.

 

“But you have to go back, don’t you?” Hansol teased. “Seungcheol would be waiting for you to come back.”

 

Seungkwan jolted up and frowned. “I- You- What’s that supposed to mean?”

 

Hansol chuckled as Seungkwan stared at him like that angry cat meme that he saw on the internet years ago. “I’m not oblivious Seungkwan, I saw the way you blushed when you saw him. Plus, Chan says you never go to the gym and Minghao told me to check up on you to see if you ever stopped breathing either from the workout or Seungcheol- I didn’t know which.”

 

Seungkwan sputtered as Hansol outed his office crush. Was this how Jihoon felt when people found about his crush?

 

“Don’t worry, I won’t make fun of you,” Hansol smiled warmly. Seungkwan might actually be starting to think Hansol was a decent guy- despite the fact that he was still wearing that god awful multicoloured, tie-dye hoodie. “I’ll even help, if you want me to.”

 

Seungkwan’s eyes narrowed. What was the catch? “Why would you do that?”

 

“Maybe you would stop acting all hostile around me?” Hansol shrugged. “I don’t know what I did, but you kinda seem like you hate me.”

 

Seungkwan stopped glaring and stared awkwardly, “I...don’t hate you.”

 

“Sure, seems like it. You avoid me like the plague,” Hansol added as Seungkwan scratched at his neck.

“I don’t. It’s just...you…” Seungkwan mumbled, not really sure how to explain that he was off-put by the guy’s clothes. Hansol looked into Seungkwan’s avoidant eyes and sighed.

 

“It’s alright, you don’t have to explain. As long as we’re okay now!” Hansol offered his hand out and Seungkwan hesitated, but accepted it anyways.

 

“Here’s the coffee!” Chan cheered, putting down the three plastic cups down on the table. “An iced americano for Seungkwan, an iced caramel macchiato for me, and an iced white-chocolate mocha for Hansol!”

 

Seungkwan face warped as he took a sip of his cold drink. _Bitter._

 

“Wait a sec-” Seungkwan looked up as Hansol got up and walked over to the condiment counter to pick something up. Walking back over to the table, Hansol placed three packets of white sugar in front of Seungkwan and nonchalantly sat back down. Seungkwan looked at him in surprise.

 

“How did-” “I saw your empty cup of coffee on your desk today. You also eat a lot of sweets during lunch break, which you should probably stop doing. It isn't good for you, you know.”

 

Seungkwan was stunned that Hansol had picked up on his sweet tooth. _He saw all that?_ Hansol sips on his own drink and smiles, “I have a good view of your desk, remember?”

 

_Ba-bump._

 

“T-thanks,” Seungkwan mumbles as he sips on the sweetened drink. Chan sips on his drink quietly, eyes shifting between his two co-workers curiously. _Interesting~_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n end of the double update...progress was kind of made.


	7. In the Words of Olivia N. John...Let's Get Physical!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seungkwan and Hansol are on good terms & Chan is still an innocent angel (?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n ~~let's get physical, physical... i wAnt to get pHysSicaAAAL~~~ (*screeeches*) I apologize...anyway here's a new chapter.

It became a usual thing. Around 11:45 a.m., Seungkwan would finish up the first couple of pages of his daily reports and then he would tap on Chan’s desk to let him know it was time for them to head to the gym. Usually Chan would just let out any audible sound that suggested that he had already knew and didn’t need to be reminded and Seungkwan would move on to signalling Hansol, which was actually much easier. All he had to do was look up from his desk and wait till Hansol caught him staring wide-eyed like an owl and give him the ‘okay’ sign from behind the glass divider. 

 

Seungkwan must admit. After their first gym session and their talk in the café, he and Hansol were on pretty good terms. _Friendly_ even.

 

Hansol wasn’t actually that bad, despite his obliviousness towards Seungkwan’s overtly snarky comments about his horrendous fashion sense; they actually had a lot of things in common. They both had sisters; his two sisters being older than him and Hansol’s only sister being younger. They both loved music and liked singing; although Hansol admitted that he wasn't great at it- which Seungkwan was fully aware of. They even shared an obsessive interest in idols, which Seungkwan took full advantage of because when K-pop fans find each other it’s like watching a bunch of 2-3 year old's reach their inquisitive phase- that period when kids  _won't stop talking_.

 

Minutes later, he’s standing in the hallway on the 6th floor in his new workout gear that Minghao helped him pick out last week. It took a total of 4 hours to find the right clothes. It would have taken less time if he had just listened to Minghao’s insistence about them _all_ making Seungkwan look “date-worthy;” but instead, he listened to his own complaints about them making him look flabby, unfit, and completely undesirable to someone like Seungcheol- who he said was: "composed of 0% fat and 100% muscle mass and good looks."

 

“Hey,” a familiar voice greeted him. Seungkwan turned around as Hansol walked over to him with two drinks in his hands. “Got you a triple-berry smoothie with some whey protein. Mingyu suggested it to me when I got my own down at the new juice place across the street. Thought it could help with your workout since you wanted to bulk-up."

 

“Thanks,” Seungkwan eyes widened in surprise as he accepted the drink. Another thing Seungkwan had learned about Hansol was how unexpectedly observant and thoughtful he was. Since last week, for instance, Hansol had started leaving sweetened iced americanos on his desk every morning. At first he had no idea why Hansol was doing it, but when he asked Chan about it he had said that it was probably because he kept complaining about the overwhelming amount of work the department had been commissioned with lately. So apparently, Hansol kept that it in mind and took it upon himself to buy his morning coffees for him to save up some time. He still didn't know why he would go out the way to do it, but Seungkwan felt so grateful that he even let Hansol's racer-striped sunglasses slide past his fashion "do or don't" meter. 

 

“Where’s Chan?” Hansol asked as he sipped from his straw. Seungkwan shrugged. Today, Hansol's clothes weren't as bad as they usually were; he was wearing an all grey outfit composed of a baggy grey t-shirt and some baggy grey sweats.  _Decent._

 

“No clue. He said he would be down in a bit.” Hansol pursed his lips and nodded before giving Seungkwan a once over. “New clothes? What was wrong with your old ones?”

 

“Got them with Hao. The old clothes weren’t really flattering on me, so I tried to buy something that might get Seungcheol’s attention. Minghao said my ass looks good in these clothes, so I trust his advice.”

 

Hansol hums and strays his eyes curiously downwards. Unfortunately for him, Seungkwan catches him before he can stare and smacks his head. 

 

“Let’s just get inside,” Seungkwan suggests after checking his phone for any missed messages. “Chan probably had some things still left to do. He'll come in a bit.” Hansol nods and follows from behind as he opens the door.

 

Hansol almost lets out an audible gasp as Seungkwan turns around. _Damn, Minghao wasn't kidding._

 

* * *

 

_Meanwhile_ , Seungcheol was inside the men’s washroom regretting every moment that he ever introduced Jeonghan as his best-friend after letting him tag-along during his following session. 

 

“So~ I see you like our little Lee Chan?” Jeonghan leaned against the washroom counter beside the sink Seungcheol was washing his hands in. Seungcheol cleared his throat and  tried his best to ignore Jeonghan’s pestering. “How crude~ Liking someone so young~” he teased, his voice rising and falling with a playful lilt. 

 

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Seungcheol argued, avoiding to answer Jeonghan’s prodding questions. “He isn’t even that much younger than me…”

 

“What do you like about him, huh? His cute face? Maybe his glamourous body?” Jeonghan snickers as he outlines a curvy body line with his hands. “That boy has an unexpectedly nice ass, I admit.” Seungcheol groans and continues to ignore his friend as he leaves the bathroom. 

 

Even as he retrieves the gym keys from his back pocket, Jeonghan nudges him to confess. “If you want to date my baby Chan, I have to know! Didn’t you ever learn how to properly woo a person? Get the acceptance of their parents first, Cheol! Do it the good ol’ fashioned way!”

 

Seungcheol sighs as he turns on the lights. The lights flicker until the the entire room is brightly lit. Seungcheol looks at his wrist to check the time. _About 5 minutes until they arrive, good._

 

Hours before coming to the gym,he had invited Jeonghan to his place to ask for advice about what to wear and had decidedly made sure to wear his sleeveless shirt that Jeonghan had suggested he wore. According to his best-friend, the lack of fabric really accentuated the bulging curves of his arms and made him look like a model from GQ Magazine or something. It was either that or Jeonghan’s other suggestion to opt shirtless and half-naked, so being the more modest-dresser of the duo he chose the prior option.

 

“You should have seen him during his orientation day!” Jeonghan fanned himself exaggeratedly and let out a cat-calling whistle. “He was wearing these knee-high jean shorts that showed off the most gorgeous, whitest,and slender legs I have ever seen. Well, next to Jihoon’s alabaster masterpieces that is.” Jeonghan blabbers on as he collapses on top of his usual bench press.

 

Seungcheol pauses just before he tries to push Jeonghan off the equipment. He can’t help himself as his mind starts to wander off imagining not-so-innocent images that definitely had _nothing_ to do with Chan’s supposed gorgeous legs. _Nothing_ _to do with that_. _Definitely not._

 

Jeonghan's eyes glinted knowingly. “You _beast_! Having perverted thoughts in the middle of the day!” Seungcheol blinks rapidly, his eyes widening.

"Always knew you had a wild imagination~" Jeonghan shakes his head in disappointment. Seungcheol stammers as he tries to subdue the vivid images in his head.

 

“NO! I-I’M NOT! I SWEAR, I AM NOT A PERVERT!” Seungcheol screams. Jeonghan blinks.

 

...

 

...

 

“Um.”

 

Seungcheol turns his head ever so slowly only to find Seungkwan and Hansol standing there...by the entrance...staring at him.  

 

“Nice to know you aren’t a pervert, Cheol!” Jeonghan cackled loudly. Seungcheol groaned and closed his eyes in shame. At least Chan wasn’t there. 

 

“Hey guys, sorry I’m late!” Seungcheol groans louder as Chan comes through the door with his work bag over his shoulder. Jeonghan looks between him and Chan with a sly look. Seungcheol can only plead through his eyes that Jeonghan won’t do anything to embarrass him.  _Please no._

 

“Hi Chan~” Jeonghan drawls his voice out in a suspicious manner, but saves Seungcheol from anymore teasing. Seungcheol lets out a sigh of relief.  _Thank god._

 

Chan just gives Jeonghan an odd stare and gives him a quick ‘hey’ back. 

“Hi partner~” Chan grins at him as he walks by to set his stuff aside. Seungcheol wants to smile back, but he can’t help but look down at the exposed legs that he had just imagined about which were now in front of him in actual flesh. 

 

“Hi Seungcheol!” Seungkwan rushes up to greet him. His bags thrown haphazardly on the floor in order to get the man's attention. Seungcheol’s eyes don’t shift away from the aforementioned sight, but he greets Seungkwan anyways despite his clear lack of attention to the smitten male in front of him. Noticing the scene before him, Hansol can’t help but give Seungkwan a pitying glance. 

 

_How does he not notice?_

 

* * *

 

After shaking himself out of that daze, Seungcheol finally started the workout session. “So, I was thinking about starting us off with some stretches. Sound good to everyone?”

The three of them (sans Jeonghan, who was unattractively chortling in a corner while watching a compilation of “The Funniest Fail Videos” on YouTube) concurred with his decision. “Alright then, partner up!”

 

Seungkwan pouted. This was the worst part about their workouts. He watched sulkingly as Chan and Seungcheol walked off to the side to stretch with one another on the mats.

“That should be me~” he sings despairingly to the tune of some Justin Beiber song that he doesn’t recall how he knows. Hansol snorts and gives him a rough pat on the back.

 

“Just start stretching, Boo.”

 

* * *

 

“So~ Do you work out all the time or?” Chan asks as he helps Seungcheol stretch forward on the mat. They were sitting in front of each other using their legs to stretch each other into a split position. Seungcheol groans as he feels his hamstrings burn while Chan pulls his arms forward.

 

“Ughh~ Y-yeah, I do. I mean, not like all the time, but probably more than the average joe. I do work as a trainer, so I have to maintain in shape,” Seungcheol exhales slowly as he sits back up. Chan hums calmly as Seungcheol pulls him forward. Seungcheol gulps, “I-I mean, if I want to give advice, I should follow it myself shouldn't I? Don’t just talk the talk, but walk the walk, r-right?”

 

Chan breathes out slowly as he leans his body forward.

 

“True, I guess.” Seungcheol's mouth drops in awe at how flexible Chan was. He had his chest lowered down parallel to the floor while Seungcheol kept his legs almost fully apart at a 180 degree angle. Seungcheol could feel the sweat drop from his forehead as Chan starred up from him in that position. His eyes twinkling with a suspicious tinge of playfulness. 

 

“What’s wrong?” Chan starred up innocently. Seungcheol tried to block out all indecent thoughts out of his head. Chan was way too close to his crotch for comfort. Good thing Jeonghan was occupied enough to not make the situation as uncomfortable as it already was.

 

“How are you- uh- so flexible?” Seungcheol reddens as he asks, unholy images of himself and his gym-partner flooding his brain. Chan lets out a contemplating hum as he effortlessly lifts himself up from the floor. 

 

“Don’t know,” Chan shrugs as he tortuously slides his hands down Seungcheol’s arms and squeezes, “Lots of practice I guess.” Chan winks at him teasingly, his voice sounding more sultry than normal. Seungcheol gulps as he watches Chan’s eyes flutter up and down. _Oh, Lord help me_. Chan continues to stare at him with eyes narrowed slightly before dropping his ‘act.’

 

“So!” Chan lets his arms go suddenly, “What’s next, partner?” Seungcheol blinks in surprise as Chan's voice returns to its usual cheerful tone.  _H-huh?_

 

“We’re all done too!” Seungkwan chirps as he runs over to the two of them. Hansol follows behind, eyes staring curiously at the flustered trainer. 

 

“We’ll proceed with 3 sets of 10 push-ups, I guess. Is that okay?” Seungcheol asks, clearing his voice and avoiding Chan's amused staring. Seungkwan nods enthusiastically and Hansol has to nudge from behind to remind him to tone down the fan-girling 12-year old within him.

 

“Great! I’ll help you whenever you need me, okay?” Seungcheol gives Seungkwan an encouraging smile as he says this and Seungkwan tries his hardest to refrain from screeching like a banshee. It wasn’t really anything to make a fuss about, but somehow one smile from the man made Seungkwan feel the need to shred off every piece of clothing on his body and offer himself to the god before him.

 

Hansol coughs. Seungkwan glances at him. He mouths a ‘calm down and play it cool’ and Seungkwan can’t help but confess that he fails to do so for the rest of the session.

 

* * *

 

The result of not 'playing it cool and calming down' is a series of embarrassing events that Seungkwan was ashamed of mentioning later to a surely pitying Seokmin and judgemental Mingyu.

First off, he completed the push-ups like they were instructed, but not without falling flat on his face a couple of times and surrendering into doing an easier set of knee-push ups (which he also fell onto his face from). Then, he tripped a couple of times seeing Seungcheol bend over to pick weights to demonstrate proper weight-lifting form for Chan. Seungcheol's thighs were tensed and glorious to the eyes. It only took one glance to make Seungkwan forget that he had the ability to simultaneously stare  _and_ walk. Fortunately, Hansol picked him up every time without any snarky comments. But, probably most embarrassing of them all so far was the sweat. Since he was trying his best to impress Seungcheol with his good form and energy, Seungkwan found the entirety of his back soaked with sweat and his eyes stinging from the sweat dripping down his face. Yet to be honest, the stinging could have also been from the tears he shed while enduring a plethora of physical activities that the muscles in his body just was not accustomed to.

 

Lastly, not heeding Hansol’s advice, Seungkwan decided was the only real reason to explain his current situation. 

 

“How did you-” Hansol cocks his head in disbelief as Seungkwan squirms under the restraining metal. Seungcheol was teaching them how to use one of the gym’s newest death contraptions and Seungkwan, being incredibly eager  to impress, volunteered to try it out. 

 

“Oh my gosh, I’ll be back in a second! I just need to get my tools! Don’t worry, I’ll help you out!” Seungcheol exclaimed frantically, rushing to the backroom to fetch his wrench and lever. Chan snickered as Seungkwan laid on top of the bench of the contraption. He looked pathetic, he admits. He was flat on his stomach with his head stuck between two metal bars and his ass sticking out for all to see. Jeonghan laughed boisterously at his suffering; apparently, he was done with his funny videos. 

 

“Pff.” Seungkwan closed his eyes in irritation. _Hansol_. Even though he couldn’t see him, Seungkwan knew Hansol had that stupid grin on his face. His three coworkers were standing behind him, staring down at him from behind. 

 

“Instead of laughing at me, why don’t you all find a way to get me unstuck?!” He demanded impatiently from his three ‘friends;’ but, they did nothing of the sort. Instead, Jeonghan walked off as soon as he felt bored and Chan ventured off to do his own set of leg curls on a nearby machine. 

 

“What asses,” Seungkwan grumbled as he stopped squirming around. Hansol was still behind him somewhere watching as he yielded to his shameful state laying there in silent defeat. 

 

"Yeah, what an ass...” Hansol nods absentmindedly, eyes still clinging onto Seungkwan’s behind. Seungkwan snaps his head to the side and fumes, “Are you staring at my ass again?!”

 

No answer.

 

“Hansol, what the fu-?!” Seungkwan screeches in disbelief. _Unbelievable_. Now that they agreed to be friendly with another, limits seemed to be nonexistent for him. 

 

“W-what?! I can’t compliment you?!” Hansol stammers in defense. Seungkwan lets out a groan. _If only he could die now_. 

 

After a few minutes, Seungcheol came back with a toolbox of random tools and yanked the top bar off Seungkwan’s neck to release him from the death trap. Seungkwan couldn’t even look him in the eye as he held him by the shoulders and patted him down with a look similar to that of parental concern.

He would insert a ‘Seungcheol being a daddy’ joke here, but the amount of embarrassment he felt at the moment was enough to shut him up  until Seungcheol concluded that this would be the end to their session. He said it was to avoid anymore incidents. 

 

“Um, good work guys! I won't be here tomorrow, but I look forward to our next session,” Seungcheol clapped as they all gathered their stuff to leave. Out of the three of them, Seungkwan was the fastest to get his stuff together and was out of the doors before Hansol could even catch up to ask about their regular after-workout drinks and snacks. Hansol shrugged. _I’ll talk to him tomorrow._  

 

Just as Hansol turned to ask Chan if he was still up for coffee, he stopped. Chan was still in the middle of the gym talking to Seungcheol, but if he was sensing things correctly there was something more going on between the two. He wasn’t oblivious. Hansol could sense the sexual tension as soon as the session started. He didn’t hear anything from Chan or Seungcheol to verify it, but judging by the smirks that Chan was sporting the entire time and Seungcheol’s puppy-like glances as he trailed behind him- Hansol knew something was up. Even as he watched Chan lean up to whisper something into Seungcheol’s ear, Hansol could tell by how the taller male shuddered in complete bewilderment that if anything: Seungkwan’s attraction wouldn’t end up being a mutual one. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n sorry about the lack of updates the last few weeks!


	8. It's A...Might Be A Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hansol plays cupid & Seungkwan actually makes progress with his crush on Seungcheol

Seungkwan couldn’t mess this up. Yesterday, he had finally built up the courage to ask Seungcheol out on a date and...well, Seungkwan wasn’t really sure if it was a date, but he thinks he was pretty obvious when he asked… _he thinks_.

 

Okay, so he wasn’t sure what it was. Somewhere in between him talking to Seungcheol and Seungcheol staring concentratedly behind him where Hansol and Chan were getting their own drinks, he had said ‘sure’ to his invitation to get lunch on Saturday. Although, Seungkwan had to give props to Hansol for giving him the opportunity and dragging Chan away to give them time to talk alone.

 

Seungcheol’s eyes strayed behind him as he sipped on a smoothie looking awfully similar to tar. Apparently it was a mixture of kale, charcoal, and flavoured whey protein. Honestly, Seungkwan would never be caught drinking one of those, but if given the opportunity to Lady and the Tramp it with Seungcheol he might. 

 

“Great! See you tomorrow, then?” Seungkwan smiles up bashfully. Eventually, Seungcheol snaps out of his trance and looks back at Seungkwan with that usual polite smile of his. 

 

“Oh, uh yeah! Um, here put your number in,” Seungcheol takes out his phone from the pocket of his grey sweatpants and offers it to Seungkwan. He enthusiastically grabs it  and punches his number in, somewhat tempted to enter his name under “your future husband with the great ass,” but finds the decency not to. Seconds later, he holds the phone out and Seungcheol takes it from him, his fingers smoothing over Seungkwan’s fingers as he grabs it. It was a cliche situation, but Seungkwan couldn’t help but look at his hand in wonder. _May my life prosper and be full of opportunities for I was just blessed by a god._

 

Meanwhile, in the midst of Seungkwan’s internal monologue, Seungcheol looks at the screen of his phone and curses. It was almost 4’oclock and most people left the office around 5 pm-  all except one person who decides to leave as he pleases.

 

“Oh crap, I have to get going. Jeonghan’s going to be coming down in a few minutes to bother me and I need to lock up the gym before he gets there,”  Seungcheol’s forehead creases as he turns off the screen of his phone. Seungkwan blinks as Seungcheol leans forward and reaches out a hand towards him. He’s proud of himself for not squealing when Seungcheol grins and pats his head.  

 

“See you tomorrow, Seungkwan!” Seungkwan nods as Seungcheol retreats and turns around, but almost immediately stops to spin back around. Seungkwan looks up at him earnestly and waits. _Maybe he forgot something? A hug? A kiss?!_

 

“Um, can you tell Chan that-” Seungkwan nods eagerly as Seungcheol hesitates to say something, “I mean, can you tell Chan _and_ Hansol that I’m leaving? I’ll pay them back for the coffee later! Maybe you can my coffee to someone else?” Seungkwan continues nodding like an obedient puppy and Seungcheol looks around the cafe once more before leaving.

 

“Oh. my. god.” Seungkwan slaps his cheeks with his hands and pinches himself. He couldn’t believe it. He had a date with Choi Seungcheol. _Praise the lord and praise Hansol for being the best wingman he’s ever seen with also the worst collection of beanies all of mankind has probably ever seen._ Now, all he needed to do was succeed at attracting Seungcheol’s attention and not make a complete fool of himself. 

* * *

 

…

 

…

 

Meanwhile, as for Hansol, he wasn’t sure where Seungkwan had gone during the time he and Chan were away. After forcing Chan away from their table, which surprisingly did nothing to raise Chan’s suspicions, Hansol had come back to an empty table. He looked at Chan who was busy looking at something on his phone and decided to send his friend a text later. Hopefully this time Seungkwan was more successful with this given opportunity than any of their previously planned attempts. 

 

The past week, Hansol had been playing matchmaker for Seungkwan and was forced to watch as Seungkwan unashamedly ‘flirted’- if you could really call it flirting- with the dense fitness trainer. Last Wednesday, for example, Hansol had tried to initiate a conversation between the two by talking about the charity work that Seungcheol had apparently done during the fall. He was hoping to spark some grounds to talk about similar interests or something like that. Unfortunately, Seungkwan choked up and responded by talking about how he had once ‘donated’ an ivory knitted sweater to his friend’s grandmother once because her arms seemed extra cold and veiny that day. Seungcheol just kind of just stared at him awkwardly and let out a long ‘ahh…” out of kindness while Hansol slapped a hand over his face in disappointment. 

 

“Hansol, could you put together this part of the presentation for me?” Jisoo walked towards his desk and flipped through his clipboard. “I would have gotten Hyungwon to do it, but he just kind of stared at me. He seemed like he was pretty much fed up with the entire world, so...if you don’t mind?” He handed Hansol a section of the written portion for the proposal presentation that they were set to give on Monday in front of one of the company’s largest shareholders based in the States. If they were successful, their development project would continue and they would get all the funding and helping hands needed to get it done. _No pressure._

 

“Sure, no problem.” Jisoo patted him on the shoulder. After he flipped to the first page, he started up his computer and typed in his password (**tobif4n98**). He rested his elbows on the table and leaned his cheek on his fist as he waited for his screen to load. Except, before his computer fully started up, he was interrupted by the loud presence of Seungkwan bursting straight into their office. 

 

“HANSOL!” Hansol peered up from his desk, his elbow slipping from the desk from the surprise. Everyone in the office just stares at Seungkwan. Jisoo gets up and waves at him to say ‘hi.’

 

“Hey Seungkwan, what are you-” Seungkwan comes rushing into the C.A. office and cuts Jisoo off just as he’s about to greet him. Hansol looks at him in absolute confusion.  Jisoo mutters under his breath and retreats to his desk, “...rude.”

 

“What’s u-” “Hansol, come here!” His entire sub-department watches as Seungkwan urgently yanks Hansol out of his chair and rushes him out of the room. Hansol stumbles behind him as the shorter male drags him passed his co-workers’ desks and out into the empty hall. 

 

“Woah, woah, what’s going on?” Hansol utters in confusion as Seungkwan stops abruptly in the hall. Seungkwan looks flushed, his cheeks more prominent and pink than usual. He feels the need to poke the squishy cushions on Seungkwan’s face, but refrains. 

 

“IaskedSeungcheoloutforlunchanditmayormaynotbeadateandIneedyourhelpbecauseifyoudon’thelpmeimightcombustandmakeanabsolutebafooonofmyselfbythrowingmyselfontopofhimandridinghi-” Seungkwan looks like he might actually combust. His words coming out in a jumble of nonsense. Hansol could only pick out a few words, some of which seemed to be leading in an explicit direction. 

 

“Woah. Okay, slow down! I can’t hear a word your saying,” Hansol says. Seungkwan bites his lip and twiddles his thumbs in front of him. It was odd. All of a sudden he was acting timid and shy- a complete 180 from his usual confidence.

 

“...I may or may not have a date with Seungcheol,” Seungkwan confesses as he plays with the hem of his sleeves. Hansol’s brow hitches, but then gives the anxious boy an encouraging smile. 

 

“That’s great! Glad you were finally able to ask him out,” Hansol patted him on the head and just as he is about to take his hand away Seungkwan grabs it in both of his hands. His eyes widen.

 

“I called you out here because I need our help!” Hansol’s eyes him cautiously and takes his hand out of Seungkwan’s grasp. He tucks his hands into the pockets of his army-patterned cargo pants and waits. “Why?”

 

 Seungkwan lets out a groan. “I haven’t- you know- dated in a while…so...” Hansol’s eyebrow hike up his forehead in disbelief. 

 

 “How long is a while?” Hansol asks interestedly and Seungkwan lets out a reluctant groan. He doesn’t want to answer that question. “How long? Like two years? Three?”

 

“Since like...the first year of highschool?” Seungkwan cringes. Hansol seems taken aback by his answer. He was always aware of his lack of experience in the dating world and was embarrassed by it, but seeing Hansol’s stunned expression made him want to shrivel away. It wasn’t a problem that he was gay or had trouble finding people to date, it was mainly because of how awkward and shy he was towards people he liked. It may be hard to believe, but Seungkwan wasn’t always the confident and social person he was today.

 

Seungkwan just looked down at the floor as they spent a minute in awkward silence. Honestly, if Seungkwan could read Hansol’s mind he would find that he was just surprised that Seungkwan had been single for that long seeing as he was...well, just himself in the most positive way possible. 

 

“B-but, that’s not the point! The date is tomorrow and I need you to give me advice on what I should or shouldn’t do. Maybe even follow behind us and tell me what I’m doing right or wrong? Most likely the latter though,” Seungkwan begged, his eyes beady and desperate. Hansol rolls his eyes. “Why me?” 

 

“Because I overheard some stories being shared between Jisoo and Minghao, and I know you’ve dated around a lot in university!” Seungkwan whines, poking Hansol’s chest over and over. Hansol felt conflicted; he wasn’t sure if dating around was a good or bad thing in this context.

 

“Both women and men if I heard correctly,” Seungkwan sung teasingly, Hansol’s chest feeling tender from the amount of jabs from Seungkwan’s index finger. Hansol scruffs his hair and sighs. How nice of Jisoo for running his mouth in front of Seungkwan. Out of all things, why tell people about his university escapades? Maybe, he should share his own stories about Jisoo’s ‘streaking across campus’ days to get back at him?

 

“That was in the past,” Hansol grabs Seungkwan’s prodding finger and lets it fall, “doesn’t make me an expert on these things, Seungkwan.” Seungkwan stares at him and pouts harder. His lip quivering in attempt to sway him. Hansol cringed. Minghao had warned him about this. 

 

_“Yeah, Seungkwan tends to act cute when things don’t go his way. Sounds kind of like Soonyoung’s baby voice, if you’ve ever heard it, except ten times worse. It’s kind of disgusting actually,” Minghao warns him and shudders. Okay, so Hansol hopes he never experiences it._

 

“Pwease Hansollie! Hewlp me! I swear, I’ll do anything! I’ll even get you wunch for a whole week! All on me, I swear! Pwwwwease?” Seungkwan whines, his voice pitching higher and higher. Hansol grimaces as soon as Seungkwan brings a fist to his cheeks and squishes his cheeks in to look ‘cute.’ 

 

“Okay, stop. That’s just plain disturbing,” Hansol steps back, face still contorted in disgust. Seungkwan frowns and drops his fist, “I’ll help. Just text me what time and where you want to meet.”

 

Seungkwan gleams and jumps at Hansol, wrapping his arms around him and squeezing. Hansol just stands there and pats his back. Hansol rests his chin on Seungkwan’s shoulder as he continues to squeeze him tighter. 

 

Meanwhile, peeking around the corner, someone was eavesdropping and cooing at their interactions.  “How cute…a date, huh? Sounds fun~” the voice hums, watching the two from a distance with an opened Snickers in hand.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n sorry for not updating this story in a while, I was feeling a bit of writer's block...still am, but getting kind of better (-_-;)


	9. The Dating Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seungkwan goes on his supposed 'date' with Seungcheol & Hansol acts a his secret consultant.

“Okay, so you know the plan?”

 

“Yep.”

 

“...”

 

“What?” Seungkwan groans as he snatches the bright highlighter yellow beanie covering Hansol’s messy hair and stuffs it in the equally tacky fanny pack around his waist. 

 

“You’re supposed to be unnoticeable, Sol. You stick out like a sore thumb with what your wearing!” Hansol scratches his head and looks at himself. He shrugs. 

 

“I think it’s fine. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Seungkwan huffs and drags him out of the alleyway that they were in to head back onto the busy street. They decided to meet a few blocks down from where Seungcheol had said to meet him. He had offered to do some hanging out before getting lunch and Seungkwan was quick to agree. 

 

“Do you have your phone with you?” Seungkwan asked, his nerves getting to him slightly. Hansol patted his side to where his phone was hiding in his shorts. Seungkwan didn’t want to even talk about the length of Hansol’s shorts at this point. _Good thing he had nice legs._

 

“I still think we should have gone with the walkie-talkies…” Hansol mumbled. Seungkwan rolled his eyes as he looked down at his wrist watch. Only 10 minutes away till Seungcheol arrived. 

 

“We would have to be a few steps away for the cheap walkie-talkies that you bought to actually work, which would completely defeat its purpose. Now, text me if you notice me doing anything...weird or unattractive.” Seungkwan exhales slowly and straightens out his pale blue dress shirt and tucks the front into his denim jeans. Hansol sighed. 

 

“Just be yourself, Boo. Don’t worry so much. You should be just fine,” Hansol says squeezing Seungkwan’s shoulder in reassurance. Seungkwan bites his lip to alleviate his heightened nerves. Hansol smiles down at him. 

 

“Alright,” Seungkwan smiles up in return and lets out a steady breath. “I should get going.” 

 

Hansol nods and waves as Seungkwan turns and walks down the street. He looks at his phone and sends a text. 

 

                     **-Good luck! :)**

 

Seungkwan bounces his knee as he sits at a table outside of a bakery. Seungcheol had made this their meeting place for the day. Apparently the scent of baked bread had helped him through some hard times when he was on a strict no-carb diet last year. Seungkwan can’t relate, but he would definitely buy a candle if it had the scent of freshly baked pastries and bread. 

 

“Seungkwan!” Seungkwan looked up and waved shyly as Seungcheol ran towards him. He gulped. Seungcheol’s ripped jeans were tightly wrapped around his legs and his sleeveless white boxed shirt did nothing to hide those gorgeous tanned arms of his. 

 

“Sorry, if I was late! I ran into an old man lost on his way to the subway station and had to help him,” Seungcheol grinned, holding out a hand to help Seungkwan stand up- which he didn’t need to, but if Seungkwan learned anything from Seungcheol’s charitable past-time activities it was that he was a soft-hearted man.

 

“No, you’re fine! I’m just a bit early is all. Um, so where to?” Seungkwan asked as the both of them just started walking down the street. Since it was Saturday, there were crowds of people and cars flooding the streets. Music streaming out from various off-brand clothing stores and accessory stores and livening up the busy road. 

 

“Do you want to go in here? This looks interesting,” Seungcheol points to a small stationary shop with antique, leather bound notebooks in the window display. Seungkwan smiles and nods. The bell above the door rings and the part-timer at the cash register greets them.

 

“Do you like things like this?” Seungkwan asks, picking up an interesting bookmark with a cat surfing on top of a rainbow. He chuckles and takes out his phone to take a picture of it. _This is definitely something Hansol would buy._

 

“Not really. I just thought it would be fun to look around,” Seungkwan hummed softly as he pressed the send button on his phone. Seconds later, his phone vibrates in his hand.

 

**[image sent]**

                     **-Awesome. Buy it for me? :p**

 

“Cool bookmark,” Seungcheol comments pointing at the sillly cat bookmark in Seungkwan’s hand. “You going to buy it?”

 

“For a friend,” Seungkwan chuckled. “How about you? Did you find anything you liked?”

 

Seungcheol shook his head and walked with Seungkwan to the cash register. After buying Hansol’s bookmark, Seungkwan followed Seungcheol back onto the street. He felt less nervous than before, but because of the amount of people on the sidewalk, Seungkwan was only centimetres away from Seungcheol’s side. He could feel their arms grazing each other as they walked side by side. 

 

“Careful!” Seungcheol yanked him to his side as a person on a skateboard sped past him almost knocking him down. Seungkwan muttered a bashful ‘thank you’ in return. His phone vibrates.

 

-You alright? I saw what happened.

 

Before Seungkwan tries to text Hansol that he’s alright, Seungcheol says something that catches his attention.

 

“Is that Soonyoung?” Seungcheol sets a fixed gaze at the window of a small antique bookstore and Seungkwan lets out a tiny gasp. “And Wonwoo?”

 

They both stare at each other in confusion. Seungcheol turns his head back and puts his face closer, his hands cusping around them to make hand binoculars. He knocks on the glass to get Soonyoung’s attention, who seems to be standing around boredly as Wonwoo reads one of the books of the shelf. 

 

“Wai-” Seungkwan tries to stop Seungcheol from attracting Soonyoung’s attention and ruining their ‘date.’ Unfortunately, Soonyoung sees them and waves. Wonwoo must have seen Soonyoung’s arms waving around wildly with his peripheral vision. Seungkwan watched skeptically as Wonwoo squinted in their direction before looked at them with a startled look. He snatches Soonyoung’s arm and books it to the back  of the shop, Soonyoung’s rambunctious yelling still slightly audible outside of the shop. 

 

“Um…” Seungcheol hesitated to say anything, unsure of what they both saw. Seungkwan was even more confused. Everyone knew Wonwoo avoided Soonyoung like the plague, so why on earth would he spend time with him on the weekend? 

 

“Let’s just go?” Seungkwan suggests, clearing his voice. 

 

The next shop afterwards turns out to be a huge mistake. They were walking calmly as usual and things were going well with Seungcheol opening up about his immense fear of clowns and the circus after a certain childhood event had scarred him. Something about two clowns dressed in full clown attire making out in a tent in front of a caged lion. “There was makeup smudged across their faces everywhere and I’m pretty sure one of them even made eye contact with me. That said I never went to a single circus again.”

 

Anyways, there was a pretty leather jacket in one of the shop displays and Seungcheol suggested that they went in after seeing how enamoured Seungkwan was with it. As soon as they walked in, they were greeted with the sound of slow jazz and what sounded like sexy saxophone playing over the speakerphone. It was odd, especially for a place selling leather jackets. 

 

“Welcome!” Seungcheol smiled politely as an overly enthusiastic woman with various piercings and a half-shaved neon green hair greeted them. Her eyes were sparkling as she looked at them walk into the store. Seungkwan had a weird feeling about her, which only increased as she continued to trail behind them as they browsed. 

 

**-Um. Seungkwan where did you go?**

 

Seungkwan looked up from his phone to take note of the fluorescent sign on the shop’s black walls. _Leather Pleasure_. 

 

**We’re inside that _Leather Pleasure_ shop. The one with the nice jackets in the display case.**

 

Seungkwan pressed send and looked to his right. Seungcheol looked busy sorting through stacks of leather pants, possibly to find his size. _He hopes he does._ He bites his lips before looking down at his phone again. 

**-Um. You might want to get out of there…**

 

Seungkwan frowns as he reads the text, his hands unknowingly grabbing onto something on the shelf.  

 

“Are you interested in looking at our newer models? We have newer ones at the back with different shapes depending on what your partner likes!” 

 

Seungkwan blinks as the worker jumps out in front of him and points down to the object in his hand. He looks down and his mouth drops to the floor. 

 

“Um. Seungkwan?” Seungkwan doesn’t want to lift his head. He can’t. He won’t. Too bad for him, the overly enthusiastic woman has no calms to stop talking. 

 

“Is this riding crop being used on you or your partner?”

 

Seungcheol is baffled, his ears flushing red with heat as he looks at the black riding crop held tightly in Seungkwan’s hand. “N-no, I’m not- we’re not-”

 

“We also have whips if you’re interested! Leashes and collars too!” the woman exclaims proudly as Seungkwan stands there in shock. Seungcheol, although completely flustered, is polite enough to decline the woman’s offer and drag the both of them out of the shop. 

 

“...”

 

“I-sorry if I interr-” Seungcheol’s cheeks were flushed as he tried to talk. Seungkwan stopped him before he could finish, not wanting Seungcheol to think that he had some hidden BDSM fetish that he was trying to lure him into. 

 

“NO! I- you didn’t interrupt anything,” Seungkwan cleared his throat, “I was just as shocked as you…”

  
Seungcheol looked away and nodded. Seungkwan bit his tongue. _Great. Just when he was starting to get comfortable, things just had to get awkward again._

 

It’s been almost half an hour or so since Hansol had been following Seungkwan and Seungcheol down the road. He had barely needed to interfere near the start of their lunch date, but after the whole leather-bound BDSM experience they had nothing seemed to be going right.

 

Seungkwan had slipped on some kid’s spilled juice on the way into an antique shop and then proceeded to order a bitter tea at some coffee shop then spitting it onto Seungcheol’s face out of disgust. Unsurprisingly, Seungcheol acted like a gentleman about it and simply wiped it off. 

 

Hansol didn’t like that about the guy. He acted _too_ polite for his liking. He especially didn’t like the way he led Seungkwan down the busy sidewalk with his hand resting on the narrow part of his back. This was how misunderstandings occurred. He saw the way Seungcheol’s lips curled and his eyes softened at the mention of Chan’s name as they were browsing a pile of stuffed animals. He didn’t like it. 

 

As soon as Seungkwan left the store with a gift from Seungcheol, Hansol made a move to leave the spot he had behind a brick wall in a nearby pathway. Just as Hansol was about to turn the corner though, a hand on his shoulder startled him. “AH-”

 

“What are you doing?” Chan tilts his head. Hansol swallows his spit. He wasn’t expecting this to happen. Chan doesn’t question his sudden silence and tries to look in the direction that he was staring in. Hansol rushes to bend his body in order to cover Chan’s view of the sidewalk. Chan straightens up and crosses his arms. 

 

“Nothing. I’m just... _uh_ ,” Hansol’s eyes flicker in different directions as he tries to think up an excuse. Seungkwan and Seungcheol were probably still standing there and he wasn’t going to risk Chan screwing up their supposed ‘date.’

 

“You’re acting suspicious, Sol,” one end of Chan’s lip curves up. Hansol wants to curse. Chan was making this too difficult. “What’s going on, Hansol?~ You know I’ll find out eventually~”

 

Even before the three of them had started working out at the gym, Hansol had been fully aware of Chan’s fox-like behaviour. He knew something was up when he recognized the way Chan switched between acting innocent and naive with most of his hyungs to acting flirtatious and speaking more bluntly with others. Chan also had a tendency to track his eyes on every attractive male in the office, which he had fortunately been seeing a lot less of lately.  

 

“...fine, I’ll tell,” Hansol spun Chan around and drew his attention to Seungkwan and Seungcheol. Chan peers out at the sidewalk and lets out a long ‘aah~’ to which Hansol just groans. 

 

“Seungkwan finally scored that date?” Chan hummed, eyes still focused on the two. Hansol frowns. 

 

“You knew?” Chan nodded, still staring at the two. “Not that I should really be surprised...But, you knew and you still decided to flirt with Seungcheol?” Hansol’s lips tightened in a straight line. 

 

“Hey, come on! Don’t be like that!” Chan whips his head to retort. “I wasn’t flirting with him... _intentionally_. I was just going with the flow,” he justifies putting his hands up in defense. “There’s nothing wrong with flirting with someone who’s clearly flirting back. Besides, I always thought you...” Chan’s voice trailed off as he looked at Hansol and shook his head. “Nevermind.”

 

Hansol shakes his head in disbelief. Maybe Jeonghan was right. Chan must be his baby. _The devil’s incarnate._

 

“I mean, I was kind of rooting for Seungkwan and someone else, but who knows if that will happen.” Hansol stares concentrately at the back of Chan’s head, unsure of what the younger male meant. 

 

 “Come on, they’re moving!” Chan whispers, pointing to the two targets who were heading into a small 70’s style family diner. Hansol puts a hand on Chan’s shoulder before he could move. 

 

“Wait, you’re coming? You aren’t going to interfere or anything, right?” Chan looks at him and scoffs. 

 

“I’m not the devil, Sol.” Chan goes on ahead and Hansol just shakes his head. _Sure._

 

* * *

 

 After shopping around for a bit, Seungkwan deemed himself embarrassed enough for the day and asked if they could get some lunch. Seungcheol found a nice hole in the wall diner with a 70’s theme complete with waiters in 70’s clothes and over-concerningly high rollerblades.

 

“What do you want to eat?” Seungcheol asks, browsing the open menu in front of him. Seungkwan looks down at his own menu and sorts through his options. 

 

Definitely not a burger. Eating a burger wasn’t cute to watch, especially when mustard and ketchup was sure to run down his mouth and hands. 

 

Steak? No, losing a tooth over a cheap diner steak in front of his crush wasn’t the way to go. 

Maybe a plain caesar salad? Seungkwan shudders at the thought of having lettuce stuck in his teeth for all to see. How was he going to get that first kiss if he had “salad-mouth”? That being if Seungcheol still felt like kissing him after what happened back at the coffee shop. He bit his nails as his thoughts trailed off in another direction. 

 

Seungcheol looked up from his menu after deciding to go with a classic burger and some sweet-potato fries. Seungkwan was taking an awful long time, not that was a bad thing. He was staring at the menu like it was a life or death situation. Seungcheol shrugged. _Maybe he just really liked food?_

 

As he patiently waited, Seungcheol couldn’t help but feel the guilt rise up his throat. He kept swallowing and clearing his throat. 

 

If he were being completely honest, Seungcheol wasn’t fully paying attention when Seungkwan asked him out for lunch. He was a bit occupied with looking at Hansol’s arm around Chan’s shoulder when they were in line for coffee on Friday. 

 

He didn’t know what was going on in Chan’s head. Seungcheol was confused about his intentions. During their workout sessions, he flirted back with him and seemed interested, but then there were moments when he acted like Seungcheol was just a close hyung. At first, he did suspect something between Chan and Hansol, but dismissed it when he saw how attentive Hansol was towards Seungkwan; now, he wasn’t so sure. 

 

Seungkwan, on the other hand, Seungcheol didn’t really know much about other than the fact that he was Jeonghan’s partner and Chan’s superior. He also had the roundest, most squishy face that he has ever seen. He nods his head. 

 

Seungcheol focuses his stare on Seungkwan, unknowingly making the man flustered as hell. Seungkwan was also very passionate about exercising and was a bright ball of energy during their sessions. He was always first to volunteer and show how things were done. Maybe he could get to know him during their break and they could become really good friends. Seungcheol smiles to himself. He did need someone to join him on that Spartan Run fundraiser next weekend.

 

After a few minutes, Seungkwan decides and says after much contemplation, “I think I’ll just have the cream-corn soup.”

 

“ _Are you sure_ that’s all you want?” 

 

Seungkwan nods as he folds his menu and straightens his posture, wiggling in his seat. _He couldn’t risk any of the other options._

 

Seungcheol flags down one of the waiters wearing rollerblades and they both watch anxiously as a lanky man skates unsteadily down the aisle to their table. As he gets closer, Seungkwan groans in misfortune when the waiter turns out to be a familiar face.

 

“Can I get your- Seungkwan?” Seungkwan stares up in agony as Mingyu stares down at him with a foolish grin. Seungkwan looks back at Seungcheol who looks at him as if asking if he knows the guy. He recalled Seokmin talking about Mingyu getting another part-time job, but he never _once_ imagined it could be here at this hour or at this specific moment in time. 

 

Mingyu continues to stare between Seungkwan and Seungcheol with a mischievous look. He looks at him as if he is waiting to be introduced. Seungkwan relents knowing fully well that Mingyu would hover around them the entire time if not properly introduced.

 

“Seungcheol, this is Mingyu. He’s the head chef at our company’s cafeteria. Mingyu this is Seungcheol. He’s a trainer at the staff gym,” Seungkwan moans reluctantly.  

 

“Ahhh! This is Seungcheol?” Mingyu claps his hands together, the action making his whole body wobble in his skates. Seungkwan groans.

 

“Yeah?” Seungcheol’s brows draw together as Mingyu looks between them with a creepy grin. _Could it get any worse?_

 

So clearly those words should _never_ be said or thought of because as it turns out, things _CAN_ get worse. 

 

“Lookie here~ If it isn’t my dear Seungkwannie and my best friend in the whole world, Choi Seungcheol!” Seungkwan dies as he feels an arm slither around his shoulder and into the booth beside him. Mingyu skates away as Jeonghan waves him off to give him a few minutes to decide.

 

“Jeonghan? What are you doing here?” Seungcheol blinked as Jeonghan sits in front of him and grabs one of the extra menus. Seungcheol didn’t seem phased by Jeonghan sudden involvement with their ‘date.’ 

 

“Oh, you know~ Taking a nice afternoon stroll is all. Besides I overheard two cute little birds chirping at one another and discovered that my bff was on a cute, romantic date today! How could you not tell me you were on a date with my Kwannie?” Jeonghan smiled smugly as he squeezed Seungkwan’s shoulder to pull him closer to his side. Seungkwan stares widely at Jeonghan. _OH GOD_. 

 

Seungcheol looked at Seungkwan and then back at Jeonghan. _A date?_ He flushes in embarrassment and immediately waves his hand to dismiss the claim. “Oh no! This- this isn’t a date! Seungkwan just asked me out for lunch. Right Seungkwan?”

 

Seungkwan froze. Seungcheol looked at him pleadingly as if he couldn’t risk a month worth of Jeonghan’s teasing. _So, it wasn’t a date after all? I mean...I guess, I should have..._

 

Seungkwan slumps in his seat and lets his teeth sink into his lower lip, not noticing the vibrations of his phone on the table.  Jeonghan looks at the lit screen and tilts his head when he reads the caller name. _Hansol._

 

“...come on, Seungkwan…” Hansol mumbles to himself. Chan kicks his foot and shushes him. 

 

Jeonghan stretches his neck when he hears a familiar voice mumbling urgently for Seungkwan’s attention. A table down from them, Jeonghan spots two familiar tuffs of brown hair. 

 

“Channie is that you?” Jeonghan calls out, cupping his hand to make his voice resonant throughout the restaurant. Seungcheol whipped his head behind him and gawked. Seungkwan did the same.

 

…

 

“...shit.”

 

Hansol rose from his seat and Chan did the same. “Act normal, okay?” Chan says under his breath to calm Hansol down. “Hey, hyung! Surprised to see you guys here!” Chan laughed, walking towards their table with Hansol following closely behind him. 

 

Hansol gives Seungkwan an apologetic look as he stares up at him in defeat. Hansol immediately takes his place next to Seungcheol in the booth. Meanwhile, Jeonghan drags Chan down to sit in between him and Seungkwan. Chan eyes Seungkwan from the corner of his eye and lets out a heavy sigh. _He didn’t mean things to turn out this way._

 

“Seems like Channie is on a date as well!” Jeonghan teased, making sure to raise a curious brow in Seungcheol’s direction. Seungcheol sits there silently, eyes looking at Chan longingly. Hansol looks to see if Seungkwan catches any of that, but Seungkwan just sits there with his head down. His fists clench in his lap at the sight, but releases the tension from his hands as soon as Chan speaks up.

 

“Nah, I just ran into Hansol on the street and we were both hungry. Right, Hansol?” Hansol tore his eyes from Seungkwan and looked at Chan, who was staring at him in anticipation. Chan was covering for them. His eyes reassuring him that he would try to fix this. 

 

“Oh, yeah. I was shopping and I saw Chan as soon as I left the shop that I was in,” Hansol excused, trying his best to sound convincing. Jeonghan hummed, not very convinced by the coincidence of them all running into each other. 

 

“Well, isn’t that great news! Seungcheol, it seems like you still have a chance!” Jeonghan chirps, hands clasped in front of him. Seungcheol chokes on his water while Chan just slaps a hand over his eyes and groans.

 

Hansol immediately looks at Seungkwan and finds his head turned toward Chan. 

 

“...huh?” Seungkwan mutters in confusion, eyes seemingly unfocused and wet. Hansol bites his lip in concern as Jeonghan continues to tease the other two men. 

 

“Whoops? Did I accidentally say something I should have? I thought everyone knew Seungcheol liked Chan at least somewhat, right Chan?” Jeonghan nudged Chan, but the younger did nothing but groan and mumble curses under his breath. Seungcheol looked like he was hyperventilating as he scrambled for a way to diffuse the embarrassing situation.

 

“NO! I don’t like Chan!” Seungcheol stammered, panicked eyes glancing at Chan. “I mean, I do! But not like- I don’t _like_ Chan! I mean, I-” 

 

Jeonghan cackled as Seungcheol went back and forth between denying and agreeing, doing nothing to help the fact that he was basically admitting to liking the younger man. Chan never raised his head and Hansol just sat there as the two bickered. At the same time, Seungkwan had his eyes downcast and his head tilted downwards in silence. 

 

...

 

...

 

“Make way!! Excuse me, sorry!! I-I have your orders!” The whole table turned their heads as Mingyu came stumbling down the aisle with a tray full of food. Mingyu was speeding towards them, his feet clumsily gliding in front of one another. “ _Almost ther-_ ”

 

 _Oh lord._ Hansol closed his eyes as Mingyu clammered to the floor, Seungkwan’s bowl of hot soup and Seungcheol’s highly stacked burger flinging straight into the air and curving downwards in a trajectory headed straight for Seungkwan’s head. 

 

Everyone gasped. 

 

“Oh my g- Seungkwan are you okay?!” Seungcheol stood up worriedly as Seungkwan sat their drenched in thick yellow liquids smelling strongly of creamed corn. He reached a hand out to pluck the flacid lettuce and sesame bun off his head. Chan rushed to wipe his face down with napkins while Hansol handed them to him. Jeonghan was actually silent for once as they tried their best to clean Seungkwan up.

 

Mingyu eventually got up with the help of some kind bystanders and apologized to Seungkwan repeatedly. Seungkwan mumbled that he was forgiven and ushered him to get back to work. After cleaning him up a bit, Seungcheol sat back down and asked him again if he was alright. Hansol watched him closely as he hummed a weak ‘yes.’ He seemed close to tears, his eyes watering with each attempt to blink the tears away. 

 

“I-I need to go the bathroom. If you’ll excuse me,” Seungkwan excused himself and rushed to the back of the diner. Hansol’s eyes followed him, noting the tense atmosphere at the table.

 

“Hansol?” Chan called Hansol’s name with a look of concern and guilt. Hansol nodded, understanding why Chan had said his name, and excused himself to run after Seungkwan. The three remaining men sat behind in awkward silence. 

 

“Some lunch, huh?” Jeonghan coughed, now understanding the weight of the situation. Seungcheol and Chan both glared at him in response. 

 


	10. Just Fine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hansol knows that Seungkwan will be just fine and so does he.

Pathetic. He looked absolutely pathetic. 

 

Moments after the whole fiasco had passed, Seungkwan had faked his exit to the bathroom and headed straight for the back door instead. Thankfully, one of Mingyu’s co-workers had taken pity on him and led him outside without telling the others. As soon as he set foot outside, he called for a taxi and headed home.

 

 It was one of the most awkward drives that Seungkwan’s ever experienced. The driver kept glancing at him through the rearview mirror and grimacing, either from secondhand embarrassment or disgust. _What?_ Has he never seen a heartbroken man in his early 20’s crying in the back of his taxi before?  Seungkwan sniffled into arm loudly. Then again, it could have also been because he wiped his snot all over the back of the driver’s seat that the driver was giving him weird faces. 

 

As soon as the taxi reached his apartment, Seungkwan took a long self-loathing shower and cried for what seemed like hours listening to a sad playlist of the saddest Ariana Grande songs. Now, he was here on the couch in his silk pajamas _still crying_. He was mid sob and half-way into a rerun episode of Gilmore Girls when his doorbell rang. He wiped his wet eyes and looked solemnly at the door. Sitting himself up, Seungkwan blowed his snot-congested nose into an already soiled tissue and dragged himself over to his door. He was an absolute mess. He had snot trailing down his face. His eyes looked like they had puffed cheetos under them because how puffy they were and even worse, there were pieces of popcorn and melted cherry-chocolate ice cream spilling down his mouth and cheeks. 

 

“I’m coming…” Seungkwan wipes his face with the back of his hand before opening the door- which did nothing to help clean his face- only to let out a quick breathe in surprise.“Hanso-?”

 

“Woah, you look like a mess...” Hansol blinks. _Great_. If he wasn’t already feeling miserable about himself, here was Hansol to make him infinitely more aware about how pathetic he looked. 

 

“ _Thanks_ ,” Seungkwan sarcastically mumbled, “What do you want Hansol?”

 

“I’m here to make you feel better,” Hansol says as he holds up two over-filled plastic bags up in the air and shakes them in front of him. It’s two filled bags of snacks. Seungkwan recognizes several familiar bags of chips and chocolate bars inside and tilts his head. He looks at Hansol in confusion and gets a stupid grin in return.

 

“How do you know where I live?” Seungkwan asks, still standing in the doorway to prevent him from coming inside. He wasn’t going to let Hansol see just how much his apartment was in ruins after his little dramatic meltdown.

 

“I asked Hao. Don’t you look at your phone? He told me I’d find you like this when I addressed the situation down at the diner and he gave me a list of things to buy. He called it his ‘teenage melt-down run-down’,” Hansol chuckled before walking past Seungkwan and into his messy apartment. Seungkwan quickly takes out his phone and looks at the lockscreen in surprise. Oh.

 

_**10 missed calls. 4 new texts.** _

 

Seungkwan quickly closes the door behind them and watches as Hansol dumps the bag of snacks across his coffee table. Hansol looks up in satisfaction and then points to the screen. 

 

“Gilmore Girls?” Hansol gives him a judging glance and sits down beside him on the couch. Hansol breathed out heavily and took in a large breath of air as he sank comfortably into Seungkwan’s couch. Seungkwan couldn’t help but notice in the midst of his surprise that Hansol was still wearing the same clothes that he was earlier. Funnily enough, he also seemed to be out of breath. He must have rushed over here as soon as he left the diner. Seungkwan smiled at the thought, feeling like some of the weight on his chest had been relieved. 

 

“Yeah? What’s wrong with the Gilmore Girls?” Seungkwan crosses his arms defensively as Hansol kicks his feet up onto the table, “Loralai and Luke were couple goals!” 

 

Hansol shakes his head and gestures to the full spread of  snacks on the table. “Nothing’s wrong with it. Come on, go ahead and eat. I bought loads of stuff to help...forget, I guess? It’ll make you feel better.”

Seungkwan nods his head in response and Hansol watches as he looks down to view his choices. Seungkwan ends up picking an Oh! Henry bar, but just as he’s about to unwrap it he stops and looks over to his right to find Hansol staring closely at his face. He gulps. 

 

“Um, did you want this?” Seungkwan awkwardly holds out the candy bar in front of him and Hansol waves his hands in front of him. Hansol coughs.

 

“Nah, I’m okay. I’m actually really and absurdly allergic to peanuts.” 

 

“How is one ‘absurdly’ allergic to peanuts, if I may ask?” Seungkwan questions as he proceeds to put the candy bar aside in place of a bag of cool ranch doritos (which Hansol appreciatively accepts). As for himself, he ends up picking up a pack of gummy bears. 

 

“Oh, it’s nothing much. Just if I eat it or have it anywhere near my mouth my whole face inflates into a splotchy bloated mess, my throat clogs until I can barely breathe, and my eyes get as puffy as yours probably did three minutes into your crying fest,” Hansol snorts as Seungkwan’s lips jut out in protest. 

 

“Well, that sounds horrible.” Hansol nods in agreeance as he crumples up his empty dorito bag and throws it haphazardly on the floor. Seungkwan smacks him till he picks it up and places it on the coffee table in front of them. It doesn’t take long for the both of them to resume into comfortable silence with the sound of the TV droning in the background before Hansol finally brings up what they both had on their minds.

 

“So. How are you feeling?” Hansol turns to him with visible concern in his eyes. 

 

“Stupid. I can’t believe I didn’t notice anything,” Seungkwan hides his face behind his hands and moans. “Plus all of the embarrassing things I did....ughhh.”

 

“Well, I don’t think anyone really noticed. It isn’t your fault that you just so happened to get caught in the middle of whatever it is that’s going on between them,” Hansol shudders. He suddenly recalled the one time he caught Chan eyeing Seungcheol down like a piece of candy when he had visited their floor to fetch Jeonghan at the end of his shift. Seungkwan wasn’t present, but Hansol would have preferred it that way anyways. 

 

“So, what are you going to do now?” Hansol attentively watches Seungkwan as he grabs another tissue to wipe his nose. Hansol’s eyes were fully situated on him and if Seungkwan wasn’t so overwhelmed by the intensity of his stare and the overflowing amount of snot spewing out his nostrils, he would have accepted his invitation to hold a full-blown staring contest. 

 

“Nothing. If Chan likes him and Seungcheol likes him back, there really is no place for me to intrude. It was just a stupid crush anyways…” Seungkwan sniffles and stuffs his face with whatever was left on the table. Hansol stares and hands him a tissue. He doesn’t notice and continues shoving food into his mouth without a care. 

 

“You have crumbs all over your face,” Hansol sighs directing Seungkwan as he wipes the sides of his mouth. Seungkwan flinches back in surprise, but silently allows the man to clean his face. “It wasn’t stupid. _You_ aren’t stupid. You were just being open with your feelings and spilling your heart out like any honest person would. And I think that’s pretty admirable. If anything, Seungcheol really missed out.” 

 

Seungkwan keeps his head down as Hansol takes the tissue away from his mouth. He sighs. “You know, we can always skip out on the next couple of gym sessions. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

 

Seungkwan stares down at the floor in contemplation. He was flattered that Hansol thought of him that way, but he couldn’t stop his mind from running through the numerous insecurities he had. Suddenly, each of his senses were fully aware of every single flaw on his body. Maybe he wasn’t attractive enough? His eyes didn’t point in a seductive manner, but rounded almost like a  child’s were. He had rounded cheeks and didn’t have a sharp jawline. Was it his weight? Chan was slim and visibly fit. Meanwhile, he was...well, he just wasn’t. He bit his bottom lip as he stared at the slight bulge of his stomach. Maybe, he should just avoid them.

 

Yet, just as he was about to tell Hansol to go through with his suggestion, he was interrupted by the vibration from his phone in his pocket. 

 

_**2 missed text from The Giant.** _

 

**-SEUNGKWANNIE, PLEASE DON’T HATE ME! I DIDN’T MEAN TO DROP SOUP ON YOUR HEAD! I PROMISE I’LL COOK YOU A WHOLE TRAY OF LASAGNA JUST FOR YOU WHENEVER YOU WANT IT!**

**-DON’T IGNORE ME! :C**

 

Seungkwan’s mouth curves up slightly as he reads the texts.

 

_**2 new texts from Haohao.** _

 

            **-Seungkwan, I swear I will burn down your entire Gucci Fall collection if you don’t answer your phone! Don’t test me, Seungkwan.**

 

**-Hansol’s coming over. He’s been trying to call you. You better call me back as soon as he is gone.**

 

Seungkwan bites his lip and looks up at Hansol from the corner of his eye. Hansol is no longer looking at him, his eyes trained on the screen in front of him; but, Seungkwan knows he’s patiently waiting. Seungkwan peers back down at his phone.

 

_**10 missed calls from Hansol.** _

 

Seungkwan can’t help the corners of his mouth from curving up in a timid grin. His worries unknowingly fleeing his head. He chuckles as he mentally pictures Hansol running around town lost with two over-filled bags of snacks and a bright yellow beanie on his head. 

 

“What’s so funny?” Hansol’s brow quirks as he asks. Seungkwan shakes his head and smiles at him to dismiss it. He quickly checks the last message. 

 

_**1 missed text from Channie.** _

 

                           **-Hyung. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go behind your back. Seungcheol is sorry too... about causing any misunderstandings and hurting your feelings. He wants to apologize. I do too. I was being immature and selfish. None of it was your fault and I would hate for you to feel that way. I hope I can talk to you soon. I really don’t want you to hate me...I hope I’m still your favourite dongsaeng? Love you hyung…**

    

A soft smile makes its way onto Seungkwan’s face as he reads that final message. He turns his phone off and puts it beside him on the couch. Hansol turns to look at him as he lets out a deep breath out and faces him directly.  “You know what? It’s alright. I think I’ll be just fine. Besides, I’m Boo Seungkwan, right?” he said lifting his chin up and giving Hansol a reassuring smile. “I’ll be just fine!” Hansol notes the glimmer in his eyes and agrees with him fondly, “Yes, you will.” 

 

Seungkwan smiles and takes Hansol’s hands into his lap. “Thanks Hansol. For being there for me. It really helped.” 

 

Hansol responds with an endearing smile. He ruffles Seungkwan’s already-messy hair making him squint with a childish grin. “No problem, Boo.”

 


	11. He Doesn't Believe In Denial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao shows off some pda, Wonwoo is being suspicious, Jihoon is still emotionally-constipated, & believe me when I say "SolBoo are just friends."

 

Having to trudge through 5 inches of snow on his way to work is one bad way to start the morning, but it appears to Seungkwan that being greeted by the overlapping screams of his half-sane co-workers may be equally or maybe even _more_ unpleasant.

 

“What is going on now?” Seungkwan groans as he walks into the office to see Minghao holding Jun in a headlock. At the same time, he was screaming curse words in Chinese while Jeonghan sits on _his_ desk shouting nonsensical cheers for Minghao to beat Jun’s ass.

 

“Oh hey Baby-Boo! Junnie is just getting his regular beating~” Jeonghan’s eyes glint in mischief as Seungkwan shakes his head in disappointment. “Always knew Minghao was a dom! It's the sadistic behaviour that tipped it off. Either that or Jun’s masochistic reactions.” Jeonghan points out proudly as if Seungkwan would be impressed by his perverted observation skills.

 

“Good to know.” 

 

“ _I told you to stop changing my god-damn screensaver to your ugly-ass face!”_ Minghao screeches angrily, his right arm tightening around Jun’s neck. Seungkwan thinks it's about time to step in seeing as Jun’s face was starting to turn into an unnatural shade of purple.

 

“Yo-uh-m-mean handsome!” Jun chokes out, his face still painted with an annoying smirk. Minghao is about to strangle the man to death, but just before Jun collapses Wonwoo comes out of nowhere and sways Minghao out of his angered state- enough to release his financing partner from the death choke.

 

“I swear, you do that one more time Jun,” Minghao hisses as Wonwoo releases him from his protective grasp. Jun has the audacity to wink, much to Seungkwan’s disbelief, and Jeonghan just snorts. Maybe Jeonghan was right, Jun must be masochistic if he willing to risk his life like that.

 

“Jun stop with the bull-shit and get back to our floor,” Wonwoo reprimands him sounding completely fed-up. 

 

“Whatever you say, buddy!” Jun shrugs and gives him a pat on the back. Wonwoo rolls his eyes and gives the rest of them an apologetic look. 

 

“I’m going to kill Junhui one day and no one better hold me back or I won’t be held accountable for what may or may not happen,” Minghao huffs in irritation. Seungkwan shudders as he recalls the countless rumors about Minghao ruthless fighting skills and how many people he had presumably sent to the hospital after each fight. Seungkwan’s just glad that he has kept himself on Minghao’s good side all this time. 

 

“... _Sadis_ t~” Jeonghan whistles under his breath, twiddling his thumbs in his lap. Wonwoo slaps a hand over his face and mutters a noise of disbelief. 

 

“So, what did Junhui do today?” Seungkwan asked his disgruntled friend. Minghao turns his desktop towards him and points.

 

“He set his face as my screensaver.” 

 

“That’s it? He always does that,” Seungkwan questioned. Minghao groaned.

 

“It wasn’t just that. The idiot froze my computer and I was in the midst of typing up referral letters from past partners for the proposal project Jisoo’s team is working on. Now I’m stuck here having to remember what I wrote previously and having to stare at his god-awful face for the rest of the afternoon.”

 

“Hao,” Seungkwan tries to calm him down, “Settle down. You can just use my computer for now and I’ll get one of our tech people to help fix your computer. Just don’t beat Jun up. No violence in the workplace, please?”

 

Minghao’s body relaxes as he lets out a loud grunt. “Fine. But I can’t promise you that he’ll be safe once I get home.”

 

Seungkwan sighs as Minghao gathers his stuff. He still can’t believe that Minghao and Jun were a couple. He went weeks without believing after his coworkers had informed him. To his defense, it was hard to believe, especially when they fought every time they encountered one another in the office. But, when he had come across them furiously making out in the stairwell during lunch break it became ingrained in his memory that they were in fact _together_. 

 

“Just no visible ‘ _markings_ ,’ please,” Seungkwan shudders. “Not everyone wants to know about what your sexual escapades are like. We get enough perverseness from Jeonghan alone.”

 

Minghao smirks as he walks away from him and Seungkwan knows that his friend isn’t going to heed his advice. 

 

“Well now that _that’s_ over, I’m going back to work.” Wonwoo cracks his neck and walks away from their desk and out of the office towards the elevators. Before he could leave, Seungkwan hurriedly followed him and called his name. 

 

“Wait! Wonwoo, I wanted to ask you a question!” Wonwoo stopped in his tracks. He knew what Seungkwan wanted to ask and he knew he couldn’t avoid it. 

 

“You realize what I’m going to ask you, right?” Seungkwan crossed his arms as Wonwoo tiredly nodded his head. “I saw you on Saturday. With Soonyoung. What was that about?”

 

“Nothing. He saw me shopping and decided to bother me,” Wonwoo stated boredly. Seungkwan pouted and frowned. That couldn’t have been it. 

 

“That’s it?” Seungkwan looked at him skeptically, trying to lean in closer to see if there were signs of deception in his eyes. Wonwoo kept a blank face as he nodded. “That’s it.” 

 

Seungkwan sighed in disappointment, almost giving up and turning back around. 

 

“But then, why did you pull him to the back of the shop?” 

 

Wonwoo and Seungkwan turned their heads to his right side where Hansol had suddenly appeared. He was standing there- his entire body hidden beneath the excess fabric of his oversized black suit and his face overtaken by a pair of round Harry Potter-like glasses. 

 

“Umm…” Wonwoo hesitated, caught off guard by the sudden question. Seungkwan caught onto his hesitation and clapped his hands in front of him in excitement. 

 

“Exactly! Nice one, Hansollie!” Seungkwan cheered, smacking Hansol hard on the back. Hansol coughed in response. Wonwoo looked between the two of them oddly. They seemed awfully chummy. “Well?” 

 

Wonwoo cleared his throat. “You caught me by surprise was all. I did it subconsciously- an involuntary act resulting from your sudden appearances. I’ll be honest, I didn’t want you to assume that something was going on and spread more inconvenient rumours, but I guess my actions have led you do just that. That’s a mistake on my part, therefore I apologize.”

 

Seungkwan frowns, seemingly believing in Wonwoo’s excuse. Hansol doesn’t say anything, but Wonwoo takes it that he has no arguments against his alibi. Wonwoo cleared his throat and adjusted the glasses upon his nose. 

 

“Well, if you have nothing else to ask, I’ll be going.”

 

Seungkwan watches irritatingly as Wonwoo briskly walks away towards the elevators. He knew something was up. He could just tell. 

 

“So,” Seungkwan turns to Hansol, “did you talk to Chan, yet?” 

 

Seungkwan goes silent, eyes flinging to the side to avoid any conversation dealing with the matter. It was his turn to be interrogated and Hansol knew exactly what he was trying to do. 

 

After their talk on Saturday, Seungkwan’s pizza- which he had ordered on the spur of the moment- had arrived and Hansol spent a few hours more to just hang out and talk. He seemed like he was in better spirits afterwards and had even started cracking jokes throughout the night. Around 11:30 pm, Minghao had forced himself over to Seungkwan’s apartment to scold him for not responding to his messages and Seungkwan apologized profusely while stuffing a pizza into Minghao’s face. This then leading to an all out food fight.  It was only around 12am, when Hansol had decided to head home, but not before reminding him to have a sincere talk with Chan and Seungcheol to straighten things out between them. Seungkwan sounded all for it and said his goodbyes, but that was Saturday. 

 

“Seungkwan?” Hansol called his name in a reprimanding voice. Seungkwan shifted his feet on the floor. He had his reasons. “Boo, come on. You have to do it sooner or later. It’s already Wednesday. Chan looks like he’s about to cry from the amount of times you've actively avoided him.”

 

Seungkwan bit his tongue guiltily, recalling the times Chan would attempt to spark up a conversation between them only for him to run away. Even Jeonghan pestered him about Seungcheol, saying that Chan wasn’t coming to the gym anymore because of how awful he felt. 

 

“I know, I know. I will,” Hansol rolled his eyes, “I just feel too embarrassed to confront him about it. It’s even worse because I’ve already forgiven Seungcheol and talked things over with him, but I can’t seem to bring myself to talk to Chan.”

 

“And that’s exactly why I brought him.” 

 

Seungkwan froze. Hansol stepped to the side as Chan came forward with a timid smile. “Hi.”

 

“I’ll let you guys talk,” Hansol gave Seungkwan a reassuring glance and walked back towards his department. Seungkwan glared at his retreating back. _Traitor._

 

Chan seemed nervous as he stood there in front of Seungkwan. Meanwhile, Seungkwan was close to peeing himself. He had no idea why, but he was. 

 

“Hi hyung. Um, I want to apologize. It was really shitty of me,” Chan said, his words jumbling together into a nervous apology. “I didn't realize you liked Seungcheol- I mean, I had a feeling, but that didn't stop me from flirting with him did it?” 

 

Seungkwan grimaced as Chan let out a guilty chuckle. “I didn’t mean to go behind your back and I didn’t mean to steal him from you. I just- he… No, I shouldn’t make any excuses...I hope you can forgive me. I really wouldn’t want to lose you. You were my first friend at this office. I hope you still are.”

 

Chan bites his lower lip. His hands anxiously rubbing together. Seungkwan lets out a large sigh and pulls his friend into a tight hug.

 

“Of course, I’d forgive you Channie.”

 

Chan circles his arms around Seungkwan’s back and mumbles a small ‘thank you.’ Seungkwan pets the back of his head and smiles warmly upon finally making up with the younger male. He couldn't stay mad for long and he surely wouldn't get rid of a precious friendship like theirs. Seungkwan smiles and ruffles Chan’s hair before letting him go. 

 

“Now, I don’t know why but I have a feeling you’re treating me to lunch today?” Seungkwan smirks as Chan pouts and nods in silent defeat. He offers the leather wallet from his front pocket and relinquishes it to him. Seungkwan chuckles and takes it from him, leading both of them back to the office to start the work scheduled for the day. 

 

* * *

 

“Jihoonie~” 

 

*clack...clack*

 

Jihoon rolls his eyes, stapling together the papers that were sent to him for Soonyoung’s next meeting. It was around 12pm, lunchtime. Soonyoung always had some excuse to try to leave before his meeting started and Jihoon wasn’t having any of it. 

 

“No.” 

 

“But Hoonie~ I feel like I’m suffocating underneath the stares from all those scary old business men.” Soonyoung whined lying face down on top of Jihoon’s desk not minding the dozens of neatly placed papers and pens underneath his plump cheeks. Jihoon smacked his back and scolded him. 

 

“I’m not listening to your excuses. I don’t care if you have a stomach ache or if you’re hungry. You are going to this meeting or else,” Jihoon threatened, Soonyoung’s shoulders slumping over in defeat. 

 

“But, I don’t want to! It’s boring!” Soonyoung grumbled, arms crossed over one another in a childish fit. Jihoon rolled his eyes as he got up from his desk and grabbed his bag with him. It was lunch and he was going to take advantage of the fact that this was the _one_ meeting he didn’t have to attend with his boss. “Can’t you go with me?”

 

“Nope. No way.” Soonyoung slumped forward even further while groaning and moaning louder. His body shaking in a frustrated cry. Jihoon ignored him, trying his best to walk away without giving in to his friend’s whining. Soonyoung stomped his feet. 

 

“Fine. I’ll just drag Jisoo with me!” Jihoon halted. His feet spinning him around to glare at Soonyoung’s smug face. 

 

“And why would you do that? That isn’t even his job. You know better than to disturb him.” Jihoon berates him, knowing fully well that Soonyoung had made Jisoo and his department in charge of developing the proposal presentation for their next project to open a new hotel branch in the States. 

 

“Ehhh, but I am the boss. I can do whatever I want, you know, unless you want to be his white knight~” Soonyoung teased, puffing out his chest to mimic a hero’s stance. Jihoon groaned in surrender. Soonyoung let out a breathy laugh and stepped into the elevator with Jihoon behind him. 

 

“How gentlemanly of you, Hoon~” Jihoon rolls his eyes and watches as the digital numbers on the elevator decrease as they descend. “If only Jisoo knew all the things you do for him behind his back.” A minute later, the digits stop at the number 13 and the elevator doors open to reveal a group of people. Jihoon keeps his head down and his hands in his pockets as he waits for the crowd to stop filing in. 

 

“Oh, hey Jihoon. Soonyoung,” Jisoo nods to them both and gives them a courteous bow. Jihoon chokes. 

 

“Hi Hong!” Soonyoung chirps, scooting to the side as the other workers flood in behind him. Jisoo gets in and stands right between them. 

 

With every floor they pass, Jihoon becomes hyper aware of the fact that Jisoo’s arm is practically flush against his own. Even with one glimpse from the side of his eye, Jihoon could tell that Jisoo was too incredibly close. Jihoon’s fingers twitched every time the elevator grew more and more crowded; their hands were only millimeters away. 

 

“So, how has your morning been?” Jisoo asks, the corners of his eyes curving up as he looks down slightly at Jihoon’s face. Jihoon looks at him and finds himself flustered. No matter how many times he ran into him, Jihoon would always freeze up when he came eye-to-eye with those sparkling feline-like eyes. He scrambled for an answer in his head. 

 

“GoOd.” Jihoon winced as his voice cracked. He could hear Soonyoung’s audacious chortling in the background and he wasn’t willing to say anything more to spare himself the embarrassment. 

 

“That’s nice. Oh, by the way, I heard you’re going to the meeting later today?” Jisoo smiles, choosing not to dwell on Jihoon’s throat spasms and graciously resuming the conversation instead. Jihoon tucks his chin in and bobs his head. Soonyoung smirks. 

 

“Great! A representative from my team couldn’t make it, so I asked Soonyoung if I could sit in instead. I heard some of the heads attending were a part of our other project, so I thought I’d introduce myself while I was there. I guess I’ll see you there then! Have a good lunch! Bye Jihoon!” Jisoo gleams, giving him a final heart-fluttering glance before stepping out of the elevator on the 5th floor. Jihoon looks up in surprise, eyes widening enough to see the whites of his eyes. Soonyoung snickers into his fist and walks out of the elevator not minding the way Jihoon attempts to burn a hole through the back of his suit. Jihoon would have probably strangled his friend by now, but unfortunately fate had to make him his boss. 

 

* * *

 

Hansol let out a large breath and shook his hands by his side. He was nervous. He liked to think of himself as an easy-going and light-hearted fellow, but for the first time since he started working here he was actually starting to sweat. 

 

“You’ll be fine, Sol.” Hansol looked down as Seungkwan gave him a supportive smile. Hansol rested his hands by his sides as Seungkwan held onto his shoulder- which was only a bit of a stretch. “It’s not like you’re giving them a presentation. Jisoo just wants you to listen in and introduce yourself with some of our international partners.”

 

Hansol bites his lower lip, “You say that like I’m just meeting up with my friends. I don’t even know why he wants me to meet them. I thought he would be doing all of the talking.” He bites down harder. Seungkwan frowns and chastises him.

 

“Well, you and Jisoo are practically the only ones who speak English in this entire company, so that’s probably why.” Hansol nods quietly, not minding the fact that Seungkwan had taken to fixing the tie clumsily wrapped around his neck. “Besides, I’ve heard from Jisoo that he wanted to account for the fact that you’ve been actively involved in developing the marketing schemes and international advertising plans for the new hotel. I read the employee progress reports, so you can’t fool me.

 

Hansol watches as Seungkwan’s small hands let go of the racer-stripped necktie and move upwards to cup his cheeks. Seungkwan smiles comfortingly and pinches the skin between his fingers to stretch his cheeks. 

 

“You’ll be fine! Trust me!” 

 

Hansol moves his hands up and squeezes Seungkwan’s hands out of appreciation. He mirrors the elder’s smile and thanks him. 

 

“Thanks Boo.”

 

Seungkwan flicks his bangs out of his face and grins, “No problem, Hansol.”

 

“Vern, it’s time to go!” Jisoo pokes his head out of the C.A. office and waves his hand out to Hansol. Hansol turns and leaves as Seungkwan walks back to his desk only to be greeted by a creepily suggestive smile. Seungkwan groans, but sits back down anyways. His view of the rest of the office blocked by the thin stature of his senior partner.

 

“What is it Jeonghan?” Jeonghan shrugs, but the glint in his eyes doesn’t vanish. Seungkwan doesn’t bother going back to work right away knowing fully well that the stream of questions and nonsensical teasing was coming. 

 

“Oh, nothing~ Are you sure you and Hansol have nothing going on? You two seem awfully close lately,” Jeonghan points out, his lanky arm stretching around him as he sat on the arm of his chair. Seungkwan feels an itch in his throat as he attempts to ignore the older male’s presence. 

 

“What is this? Are you avoiding the question?” Jeonghan laughed. “You know silence is as good as admitting to it? You know, I don’t mind though. I think you two would be cute together.”

 

Seungkwan hisses and narrows his eyes at him. He doesn’t pay attention to the way his cheeks heat up in response to the proposed idea. Seungkwan didn’t need to be told by his friends each week. He recognized the fact that they had gotten much closer after everything that happened, but it wasn’t as if all of a sudden he was attracted to the guy. Sure, he found that Hansol had some great qualities and an even better personality, but they were _just friends_. If anything, they were like best-bros forever; ‘BBF’s if that was a thing. 

 

“You can’t deny it, Kwannie. I see the way you look at him,” Jeonghan teased in knowing manner. Seungkwan scoffed. _What way?_ There wasn’t anything different in the way he stared at Hansol in comparison to how he stared at most people.

 

“I stare at everyone like that,” Seungkwan huffs, his fingers taking out his frustration on the keyboard in front of him. Jeonghan gets off the arm of his chair and shakes his head. He moves the keyboard to the side of his desk to spare it anymore damage and Seungkwan just purses his lips. 

 

Jeonghan shrugs again, “Sure. If staring at people like they’re fragile and in need of your constant protection is common to you, then ignore me as much as you like.” 

 

Seungkwan glares at Jeonghan’s retreating back as he saunters away. They were _FRIENDS_ . Just friends. _What wasn’t there to get?_

 


	12. Christmas Is Just Around The Corner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soonyoung has an surprise announcement & Wonwoo is our representative angst-provider

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n it ain't even December, but i'm writing about Christmas...also I edited this to change the dates because they didn't make sense (*smacks forehead*)

Seungkwan shivered, his hands braced tightly on the sleeves of his puffy winter jacket. His tired eyes flicker between Chan’s blank face and Hansol’s lips mumbling the  English lyrics of some foreign song. Meanwhile the rest of his co-workers were keeping themselves occupied as they all sat around on the office floor in silence.

 

Just before their lunch break began, phones left and right began to ‘ding’ and vibrate as Jihoon’s mass message reached almost everyone on their floor (as well as Wonwoo and Jun). No one had a clue what they were gathered here for, but knowing their CEO it was either for something significant or so miniscule that only Soonyoung could get away with making a show out of nothing for his own enjoyment (as he usually did).

 

At some point, Seungkwan started to get fed up with the prolonged silence and linked his eyes up with Hansol, who’s eyes widened only because he himself had no intel about what was going on. Almost immediately, the domino effect occurred; since Hansol had no clue he looked at Jisoo, who pursed his lips and looked at Minghao, who looked at an equally-oblivious Chan, who looked at a clearly disinterested Wonwoo, who then looked at Jeonghan, who looked at...well, he continued to stare at his fingernails like he had been for the past half-hour. 

 

“So,” Chan starts off, lips pursed and ready to whistle away the awkward silence permeating throughout the room. Minghao groaned as Jun adjusts his head on his lap, his noggin uncomfortably digging down onto his unsuspecting crotch. He wacks the grinning man on his head, which only procures a judgemental head-shake from Jisoo. Meanwhile, Wonwoo continued to stare into the abyss while shutting out the voices of everyone around him. He had a long day of never-ending calculations and wasn't up for anymore of Soonyoung's antics.

 

“Does anyone know exactly why we’re huddled in a circle on the floor in our winter coats like a bunch of penguins?” Seungkwan continued, voice brimming with exhaustion and annoyance. There were problems with their office’s heating (funnily enough, only in their office) and everyone was forced to wear their winter jackets and share the few emergency blankets they had in the storage room (something which Seungkwan was having none of). He bundled himself tighter with his puffy winter jacket and scooted closer to Hansol’s side to take advantage of his exuding warmth.  He pretends not to notice Jeonghan’s or any of his other friend’s teasing stares and waits for an answer. Everyone stares at him and shrugs.

 

“Soonyoung. Announcement.” Seungkwan jumps as soon as Jihoon appears from nowhere to sit down beside him looking ever so exhausted and ready to go home. Hansol scoots over to make room and Jihoon gives him a thankful nod. Minghao groans a quiet “of course” while coursing his fingers through Jun’s scuffled hair, the older man practically purring in his lap.   

 

“And the reason why it’s still freezing like a mother-fuc” Jeonghan gasps and covers Chan’s mouth before he can say another word. “Watch the profanity, my child.” Chan bites down on his hand and Jeonghan let's go with an unattractive screech. “As I was saying, why is it still freezing like hell in here? I thought we called someone to fix it hours ago?”

 

Hansol snorts. “I’m pretty sure hell is frequently depicted as being in flames so, you know... that simile doesn't really...” Hansol mumbles amidst Chan’s complaints earning himself a jab to the gut with the younger’s elbow. 

 

“I called for a technician to come repair it, but their services aren’t available till tomorrow,” Jihoon explains trying his best to ignore the way Jeonghan begins to snore as he talks, “So, for now can you all please just put up with it?” 

 

Everyone gives him a reluctant nod and, amusingly, in perfect synchronization, all shiver as a gust of cold air passes by. Seungkwan mindlessly huddles closer to Hansol’s side and he feels his hand reel him in by the side of his waist. “Thanks,” Seungkwan whispers and Hansol lets out a small smile in return. 

 

Minutes later, Seungkwan begins to hear the rumbling of something moving towards them from outside their office entrance and their voices quickly disperse into a silent mumble. “What was that?” Jisoo asks.  The only person who has the slightest idea is Jihoon, who was already looking up to the ceiling with his eyes clamped shut in look of exhaustion. He lets out an exasperated breath before asking someone to open the doors. 

 

Chan gets up, brushes his pants, and opens the door. Once the glass doors open, the rumbling of plastic on the ceramic tiles gets louder. Then, it stops. 

 

“Listen up!” 

 

Everyone turns their heads as Soonyoung rolls into the office in a mini-convertible with a large megaphone held up to his mouth. Jihoon shakes his head in disappointment and almost everyone follows suit. His legs are spread on either side of the car and his feet struggle to keep the piece of plastic moving towards the centre of their circle. Minghao moves to the side to let him pass and  Jun lets out a yelp as Soonyoung ‘drives’ over his toe. 

 

“Hmmmph...mmph…” Seungkwan gives Soonyoung a look of pity as the man quietly groans trying his best to scoot over to the centre. Eventually, the ever-so kind Hansol gets up and pushes his vehicle with the back of his foot. Soonyoung smiles at him and bows his head. 

 

“Now!” Soonyoung presses the loud horn button on the megaphone and everyone braces their ears to protect their ear drums. Soonyoung stands up, still using the megaphone to make his announcement and potentially deafen all of his workers. 

 

“Due to the success of our meeting last Wednesday with our company shareholders-” Soonyoung turns his head to give both Hansol and Jisoo a grateful wink, “no doubt from the great impression left by some of our best employees- we were able to secure the funding and assistance we need to begin the development of our hotel in the States!”

 

Soonyoung starts up a clap and the whole floor begins to applaud. Seungkwan smiles proudly as Jisoo gives Hansol a pat on the back and the others give him a thumbs up to congratulate his work. Hansol massages the back of his neck in embarrassment and mumbles a shy ‘thanks’ in return. 

 

“To celebrate, our past and present partners have decided to come together to throw the grandest, most extravagant public charity Christmas party that K & W Corporations has ever held! ” Soonyoung exclaims in a grandiose manner, his arms thrown in the air for extra effect. The whole team cheers and the excited chatter begins as everyone turns to one another to clamor about the upcoming party. 

 

“When is it?” Chan grins excitedly while Soonyoung walks toward him to wrap an arm around his shoulders. He stares at everyone and pauses to evoke greater anticipation before putting the speakerphone up to his mouth. Everyone leans their heads closer and wait. Soonyoung coughs and clears his throat.

 

 

“It is...This Friday!”

 

…

 

Someone coughs. 

 

…

 

“Um… isn’t that a little... _soon?_ Today is _Wednesday_ ,” Jisoo chuckles nervously as Soonyoung’s grin widens. Jihoon continues to groan with his face in his hands, sitting criss-crossed in the space near Chan’s desk. “That’s alright! I have great faith that you guys will do a _fantastic_ job!”

 

Seungkwan gives Soonyoung a disbelieving look and points a finger to his chest. “Uh, what do you mean  _us?_ As in, like,  _us_ us?” Soonyoung nods peppily and gestures to the nine of them with a sweep of his arm. 

 

“You’ll be in charge of the catering, the decorations, the entertainment, booking a nice venue, managing the expenses... Everyone here can be given a task! It’ll be like a big team-building event! Except a bunch of important people are relying on your hard work and probably have high expectations!” 

 

Silence. 

 

Soonyoung beams and claps his hands, the tense atmosphere doing nothing to sway his energetic behaviour. “Oh! And we should host a bunch of Christmas activities for our guests! We could even get ourselves a mall Santa too!  And some reindeer! Those exist, right? Now _that_ would be fun, don’t ya’ll think?!” 

 

Silence.

 

“Soonyoung?” Jihoon sighs, giving the man a hopeless look. The oblivious CEO answers with a happy hum and a crinkly eye-smile. Everyone looks at him and glares. “Run.”

 

“Huh?” Soonyoung turns his head in slow-motion, eyes quivering as he comes face to face with an angry mob.

 

Seungkwan cracks his knuckles in his fist. Minghao stretches his legs. Chan swings his arm in a complete wide circle.

 

"Sounds fun, r-right?"

 

Jeonghan gives him a dirty glare and cracks his neck. Jisoo gives him a look of disappointment and tries his best to look intimidating. And Jun does an unnecessary side-kick in the air. Meanwhile, Wonwoo and Hansol stand on the sidelines to watch unimpressed. Soonyoung lets out a nervous laugh as he begins to feel the sweat build on the side of his forehead. 

 

“...Hehe, guys?”

 

* * *

 

After the announcement was made, Wonwoo headed down to the car park to meet up with the others to start gathering the things they needed for Friday night. Soonyoung had escaped their attacks with only a few scratches and a few strands of hair loss from his head, but everyone had made a special request that Soonyoung would be involved in helping them as well. Knowing him well, Wonwoo knew Soonyoung would have no arguments against it, much to everyone’s belief that Soonyoung would do anything to escape his responsibilities. 

 

Clicking the unlock button on his keyring, Wonwoo opened the trunk to make space in his trunk. He rolled his eyes as he found a couple of Marvel comics scattered in the back leftover from last weekend. He was starting to think that he was doing this on purpose to keep seeing him- or more like, Wonwoo knew that was the case. 

 

“Wonwoo-hyung!” Wonwoo turned his head to see Seungkwan jogging up to him with Hansol following behind carrying both of their work bags. Hansol was a nice guy. From what he could tell, Seungkwan seemed to be smiling a lot more due to the younger male and seeing as Seungkwan was sort of like a younger brother to him, he fully approved of whatever was going on between the two. 

 

“Hey, Seungkwan. Hey, Hansol. Are you ready to go?” Seungkwan nodded, taking his bag from Hansol and putting them on the floor in front of the back seats. Hansol lets Seungkwan in first and sits beside him. Wonwoo closes their door and looks at his wrist watch. _Of course, he’s late._

 

“Sorry, I’m late!!” Wonwoo looks up in a nonchalant manner and gives Soonyoung a curt nod. Soonyoung huffs and gives him a cheeky grin. “Miss me?” 

 

Wonwoo scoffs and makes his way to the driver’s seat. Soonyoung gets into the passenger’s seat and looks over his shoulder to give Hansol a quick fist bump. “Yeaah~ SWEEEG, mannn~”

 

Seungkwan shakes his head, but lets out a tiny laugh, and Hansol chuckles as Soonyoung turns back around as hyper as always. Wonwoo wants to snort, but stops himself before he can. Soonyoung catches him and smiles happily to himself, fingers tapping happily on the glass of the car window. 

 

* * *

 

Once they arrived at the market where they sold Christmas trees, Wonwoo tried to split the four of them up into different teams. 

 

“Seungkwan, how about you and I pick out the interior and exterior christmas decor and you two can go pick out the trees?” Wonwoo ordered, looking at the list in his hands of things Jihoon ordered them to get. He calculated the pricing and if things went the way they discussed, they would have everything they needed for the event without having to dive to deep into their funds. 

 

“But, I wanted to be with Hansol,” Seungkwan argued, much to Wonwoo’s surprise. Wonwoo gave him a curious look and looked between the two younger men. Hansol looked equally surprised at Seungkwan’s protest, not expecting the other to have many arguments with the groupings. 

 

“Sounds good to me!” Soonyoung chimed in, trying his best not to show his gratitude towards the opportunity to spend a couple minutes to himself with lensed man. Wonwoo tried to show Seungkwan his desperate and pleading eyes, but all he got in return was a look of mischief. _How could you?_

 

“Great!” Seungkwan applauded and gave Wonwoo a mocking smile, his arm already weaved around Hansol’s right arm. “We’ll meet you near the car around 2? Text me if you guys think of any specific decorations!” 

Wonwoo watched in misery as Seungkwan rushed off pulling an easy-going Hansol off to the market’s small barn-like warehouse where they sold all sorts of Christmas decor. He couldn’t escape now could he? 

 

Soonyoung tapped his shoulder to get his attention and he did so...reluctantly. “What?”

 

“Let’s go?” Soonyoung smiled gently, standing by his side with a considerate amount of space. Wonwoo’s eyes ventured away from those upturned eyes and nodded. They walked side by side in the snow towards the fenced in area where they kept all of the evergreens. His body trembled as snow kept falling down on them, his hands searching for warmth in his deep coat pockets. 

 

He never liked winter. He was always so inexplicably cold and the immense snowfall was just a nuisance to his outdoor endeavours. Christmas? Even more of a nuisance. He had to fake being happy and fake being in the ‘Christmas spirit’ for most of December, especially when his family came up to visit him. Christmas wasn’t anything special. To him it was just another day full of unattainable wishes and expectations that never come true. Too many bad memories with the date and not enough good ones to keep him from regretting ever loving that day. 

 

“How about a 100-tiered cake?”  Soonyoung suggests excitedly, his eyes pointing upwards with a bright smile as they walked down the aisles of evergreen trees. Wonwoo snaps out of his reverie and looks wistfully at the snow tipped branches in front of him. 

 

“Oh! Oh! Or how about we get not 1, but 10 Christmas trees? 5 for the outside and 5 for the inside? How about red and green balloons? A Christmas clown?” Wonwoo walks past him with a hurried stride and ignores each of Soonyoung’s eager suggestions. He stops and turns to give the excited male a look of irritation. 

 

“This isn’t a birthday party. Let's just order one damn Christmas tree and go back to the office before my shift is over. I’ve already calculated and divided the expenses _and_ gathered a list of what we need, so don’t even think about buying anything extra. Understand?” 

 

Soonyoung nods. He pouts and trails behind Wonwoo, shoulders slumped in defeat. Wonwoo straightens his back and lets out a sigh of relief as Soonyoung falls quiet behind him. Honestly, Wonwoo shouldn’t have been surprised that he ended up with Soonyoung, especially with his luck. It wasn’t enough that the latter had fully taken over his weekends, but now his workdays were being taken hostage by him. Maybe he would have been happy about it before when he was naïve and without a doubt in the world, but now the interferences in his daily life was getting on his nerves. _He thought things were over between them? What exactly did he want from him?_

 

“So, what are we doing this weekend?” Soonyoung hums, playing with the snow underneath his feet and mumbling a timid apology when he accidently kicks snow onto the back of Wonwoo’s pant leg.

 

“ _I_ am going to the bookstore,” Wonwoo answers, trying his best to reiterate his plans to have the weekend to himself; yet, as it always is with Soonyoung, his words go through one ear and out the other. Soonyoung moans as he slumps his body forward and looks up to give Wonwoo a bummed out stare. 

 

“But, you always go there! Can’t we go to the movies or something? An arcade? Anything other than that boring bookstore?” Wonwoo can feel his lips begin to twitch as he tries his best to refocus his attention on choosing between the two tall evergreens in front of him. He just needed to decide and get this over with so he could leave.  

 

“Come on, Jeon. How about it? Like two best pals. It can be like the old times. Just you and m-” Soonyoung smiles, cautiously wrapping a tender hand around his sleeved arm. Wonwoo bites his tongue as he feels Soonyoung’s hopeful eyes on his tightened jaw. _Enough._

 

“We will _never_ go back to how we were. The past is the past and I am more than willing to keep things that way,” Wonwoo cuts him off with a sharp glare and brushes his hand off his jacket. Soonyoung’s smile falls from his face and his hands drop to his side. His fingers curl up tightly into his palm before unfurling with what little energy they had left. Wonwoo keeps his eyes set forward and points to the tree on the right. 

 

“We’ll get this one. Now, let’s go.”

 

* * *

 

Seungkwan couldn’t help but worry. He felt like something was off with the way Wonwoo looked at him- it was sad and almost vulnerable the way he was pleading at him. He wasn’t completely out of the loop- he felt the tension radiating from Wonwoo as they drove up here. Soonyoung, on the other hand, looked like he was trying his best to keep things lively, despite his yearning glances every now and then. He could only hope he did the right thing and that whatever was going on between the two older men would resolve for the best. 

 

“What do you think about this?” Seungkwan snapped out of it to see Hansol resting his hand on a life-sized robotic Santa Claus with a voice box that seemed decades old. Seungkwan grimaced as the old, discoloured figure let out a demon-like ‘ho, ho, ho’ and it’s eyes lit up with a flickering yellow light.  

 

“Hansol. No.” Seungkwan shuddered, weirded out by the Santa’s eyes tracking every move he made. Hansol shrugged and moved onto the next decor item. Seungkwan’s lips turned upwards as watched Hansol dance excitedly to the music blasting from the speakers. He almost lost it when he narrowed his eyes with a serious face and body-waved towards him grasping onto his shoulder for a few more rolls afterwards. Several elderly ladies cheered him on and a couple others stopped and looked at him oddly. Seungkwan couldn't help but bite his lip to hold in the laughter.

 

Hansol was such a free-spirit and, in contrast with his first reaction to meeting him,  Seungkwan couldn’t help but smile when he was around him. He didn’t realize how fast he moved on from his temporary heartbreak, until he found himself smiling when he woke up and got ready for work. Moreover, he found himself smiling at both Chan and Seungcheol when he rejoined their workout sessions. He was actually happy for them; he was even beginning to  root for Seungcheol even as Chan kept denying his feelings for him. It was funny. It was as if all it took was Hansol to medicate him with his weird dancing, choppy laughter, and brightly coloured clothes for him to realize that life was so much more fun when you hold it by the hand and follow it wherever it goes without comparing the amount of ups and downs you experience. 

 

“How about this one?” Hansol smiled, pointing to an atrocious looking wreath with some half-eaten candy canes hanging from its dead branches. Seungkwan smacked his arm, shaking his head and chuckling heartily. Hansol laughed enthusiastically along with him, “ _What?_ It’s festive enough, don’t you think? The lifelessness of the branches really brings out the ‘merry’ in ‘Merry Christmas’.”

 

“Ha ha, very funny!” Seungkwan wrinkled his nose with a wide smile as he kicked up some snow off the ground and right onto Hansol’s black converse shoes. He wagged his foot in the air to get the snow out before looking dead-straight into his eyes. Hansol wriggled his eyebrows and Seungkwan stuck out his tongue. 

 

“Oh, it’s on." Seungkwan squealed as Hansol leaned down and gathered snow in between his hands to form a solid ball and aimed it at him.  He smirked, eyes sparkling with a cheerful glimmer. “You better be quick, Boo.”

 

Seungkwan smiled. As soon as Hansol threw the snowball at him, Seungkwan stood still and laughed with all his might. Hansol tilted his head and moved cautiously towards him. “Why didn’t you block it?”

 

“Oh, nothing~” Seungkwan hummed, rocking back and forth before taking his hands out from behind his back slowly. Hansol’s eyes opened wider as he brought his hand out. The corners of Seungkwan’s lips curved fiendishly upwards as he stared at him smugly. “Now, I can do this!” 

 

Hansol gasped and yelled out in an uproar as Seungkwan shoved a handful of snow down the back of his rainbow-striped sweater. Hansol screeched and leapt backwards as the snow slid down the expanse of his back. Seungkwan gripped his stomach as Hansol hopped around in misery, joyful tears building in his eyes. A couple kids walked by and pointed at him while laughing themselves. Seungkwan bounced on his feet and clapped in amusement. 

 

Hansol cracks a smile as he stops trying to reach down his back for leftover snow to find Seungkwan wiping the tears away from his eyes. Seungkwan snickers and Hansol can’t help but smile even wider. “The things I do to make you laugh.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n things happened and school starts tomorrow...I really do love writing this story, so i'll do my best to keep it going. thanks for the support, everyone!


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